Sunday 21 August 2011

Pegboy - Three-Chord Monte / Strong Reaction / Field Of Darkness


After defining the sound of Chicago punk kings Naked Raygun with his simple but direct guitar for the best part of the 80s, John Haggerty decided he’d had enough and formed a new band, enlisting the help of Larry Damore and Steve Saylors on vocals/occasional rhythm guitar and bass respectively, from the recently-disbanded Bhopal Stiffs, rounding out the lineup with his brother Joe behind the drum kit. Pegboy went in to record a few demo tracks with Iain Burgess, and decided that it was good enough to release as it was as an EP. Later packaged on one disc with debut full length Strong Reaction, it nevertheless gets a separate examination because of its initial release as a separate record.

Three-Chord Monte is one of the most charming little puns you’ll find in the often all too serious world of punk, and it’s reinforced by the cover photo of a shady character dealing cards on the docks. It’s also backed up by the opening track, as the riff that permeates most of “Through My Fingers” is indeed one with three chords. The song is remarkably unspectacular, and I still can’t fathom how they spun it out to four minutes. Damore’s flat vocals are a welcome change from the screaming, shouting, or whining that you’d usually get on straight simple punk, but on this EP and especially on this track, he sounds like he’s bunged up with a terrible head cold. The repetitiveness can really get to you on a bad day, which is a shame because it’s otherwise not a bad track. The unimaginative guitar solo coda doesn’t drag it out of mediocrity, and while Pegboy would always be better known for chunky riffs than creativity, how this song was picked to have a music video made for it and everything is beyond me. The lyrical despondency that features on most Pegboy songs regardless of musical mood is in full force here, and on every other track on the record. “My Youth” is more energetic and much catchier, but the combination with the lyrics creates a sort of bittersweet punk anthem, almost like The Bouncing Souls but more inland and closer to hardcore than Oi-punk. Most of the progressions in this song actually have four chords, but I think the least prominent riff in the verse has only three chords, so we’ll allow the song to be here, which is just as well because it’s the best song on the record.

The track fades away, as several of the best Pegboy songs seem to annoyingly do (“Strong Reaction” from the album of the same name, the closer to the mighty Fore EP “Jesus Christ”, and Earwig centrepiece “You” all spring to mind), and just to rub it in, the next track is called “Fade Away”. The guitar neck gets strangled in a more sombre piece that’s marked with a really awkward chorus that doesn’t seem to fit the rest of the song. I think it’s supposed to add a bit more kick to the dreariest track, but there’s no noticeable injection of energy. “Method” snarls a little more, and a more aggressive drum track propels the song to something greater. The backing vocals are at their best, and the guitars cruise and crash at the right times, including the best guitar solo that John Haggerty put down between leaving Naked Raygun and Fore in 1993.

A year later, and the band’s first full length was out. The strikingly plain cover of Strong Reaction reflects the music, and “Strong Reaction” grabs your attention without any fireworks. A monster riff drives the song throughout, and an impassioned but gruff vocal from Damore, whose nose was sufficiently clear by now, leaves us with a classic, and I have no complaints about this being a focus track with a music video made for it. “Still Uneasy” is brighter, shorter, and features a more noticeable bass. The backing vocals are much airier than in the opener. There’s still some beef in the post-chorus riff, and “Still Uneasy” is a good second track which manages to avoid sounding weaker than “Strong Reaction” by being just different enough.

“Not What I Want” is about on par with the previous track. It lacks a particularly interesting riff, but it’s bouncier still, and the classic air of defiance it carries will appeal to the younger punks out there. “What To Do” takes the pace down, and feels at times like a slight dip in form. The guitar lacks energy if not bite, although the vocals are still going strong. It feels like a blip, but is fairly consistent with the stock material at the back end of the album.

The instrumental “Locomotivelung” introduces a new flavour into the mix. Joe Haggerty’s drumming steals the show, but the dual attack of brother John and Damore on guitars is much more vicious than anything else the band did on Strong Reaction or Three-Chord Monte, being the clearest hint at what Fore would sound like. The only downside of this track is that it lacks an ending, which, considering they didn’t put the effort into lyrics, is particularly disappointing, because a crescendo was promising to build in the fadeout. “Superstar” is like “Not What I Want” in that it relies on infectious vocal tuning rather than a really good sequence of chords, and comes across as standard fare.

The song that was actually given release as a single from the record was “Field Of Darkness”, and it’s unlike pretty much any other Pegboy song from this era, in that right from the off, John Haggerty is hitting the higher notes of his guitar well away from Damore’s rhythm, and this makes it stand out in a big way, despite being the standard formula for most two-guitar four-piece units. Apart from trying to cram the song title into a space where there wasn’t room for it, the song’s full of melody and niceness and all that, so it’s no real surprise that it found its way onto a seven inch. “Time Again” brings the sound back into more familiar territory, with an urgent but dull riff that would have been chastised more if it had appeared on another part of the album, but it does the job after the last track, and one of the better solos on the record keeps the song treading water in its own right.

“Believe” takes things down to almost the level of “What To Do” in terms of both speed and mood. A lively solo puts it higher up the pecking order, but it isn’t exactly stellar. The final credited track is “Hardlight”, eighty five seconds of disappointing throwaway material. I’m sure it’s some nod to the past bands that the members of Pegboy have been in, but it doesn’t belong here. The hidden track fades in where the fadeout of “Strong Reaction” left off, suggesting that the band had kept going until someone decided that they’d played enough (at approximately four minutes, the opening track is roughly a minute longer than the next longest track even with the fadeout), proving that those pesky punks were never intending to give the song a structured finish.

The Field Of Darkness single had the same version of “Field Of Darkness” as Strong Reaction, but featured a unique B-side. While “Field Of Darkness” remains a favourite of many who first heard Pegboy material when they heard their favourite band covering it (in my case it was Hot Water Music on a live bootleg), those that have grown into the entire catalogue might well find “Walk On By” to be streets ahead. Despite sounding like it was recorded in a tin of baked beans, it’s bristling with energy and is easy to sing along to, with the trademark uncertainly expressed in the lyrics, and I can't help but like it more than the A-side.

Being one of those albums that have a good sound to them without doing anything spectacular, Strong Reaction is as good a record to have in your collection as any Naked Raygun record. While 1994’s Earwig has some better songs and certainly better songcrafting, Strong Reaction just gives a great experience, and coupled with having just about enough good tracks, stands out as the most memorable and essential Pegboy release for most people. Three-Chord Monte is a worthwhile addition, although that’s easy for me to say because I accidentally bought it when I bought Strong Reaction. It’s unfortunate to say that the Field Of Darkness single is only for vinyl nerds and the hardiest of Pegboy collectors, because everyone who’s heard the band and doesn’t hate them would think that at least one of the two tracks on it was the best thing they’d heard that week.

Personal picks – Strong Reaction, Walk On By, My Youth, Locomotivelung, Method
Picks for others – Field Of Darkness, Not What I Want, Method, Still Uneasy, Strong Reaction
Relative weaknesses – Hardlight, Fade Away, What To Do

Tracklist

Three-Chord Monte
01 – Through My Fingers
02 – My Youth
03 – Fade Away
04 – Method

Strong Reaction
01 – Strong Reaction
02 – Still Uneasy
03 – Not What I Want
04 – What To Do
05 – Locomotivelung
06 – Superstar
07 – Field Of Darkness
08 – Time Again
09 – Believe
10 – Hardlight
11 – (Untitled continuation of Strong Reaction)

Field Of Darkness
01 – Field Of Darkness
02 – Walk On By

2 comments:

  1. Hey... You wouldn't happen to have the lyrics to Pegboy's Method would you? I would really appreciate the help in finding these lyrics... Thank you Brian

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  2. Well, for whatever reason, Pegboy lyrics aren't really out there on the web, so I've transcribed the lyrics from the liner notes of the Strong Reaction/Three Chord Monte combined release [stuff in brackets for extras and probable corrections]

    Well sit down and let me tell you one thing
    There's a method to your madness
    It's your sadness
    I remember when you used to hope for
    The hope there was some magic
    Some magic
    I can still remember when
    You used to take your heart in hand
    And you gave it - gave it [+ gave it x2]
    I wish I could go back again
    And trace your [my?] childhood again
    To your madness [+ madness x3]

    [(Chorus)]
    But it seems so far, far away, far away
    Seems so far, far away, far away
    Seems so far away

    [Well] one thing I know you took for granted
    Let it slip on [right?] through when you had it
    I remember when you used to hope for
    The hope there was some magic
    Was so tragic [some magic]
    I can still remember when
    You used to take your heart in hand
    And you gave it - gave it [+ gave it x2]
    I wish I could go back again
    And trace your childhood again
    It's so saddening [+ saddening x3]

    [(Chorus)]

    [Well] one thing I know you took for granted
    Let it slip on [right?] through when you had it
    I remember what you used to hope for
    The hope there was some magic
    Was so tragic [so magic?]
    I can still remember when
    You used to take your heart in hand
    Were so selfless [+ selfless x3]
    I wish I could go back again
    And trace your [my?] childhood again
    Were so selfless [+ selfless x3]

    (Chorus)

    [(Chorus)]

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