Way Fitter Than Billy Fury

It's December, season of credit and frenzied advertising. What better way to welcome in the month than with the umpteenth releas this year by York's Mark Wynn. Behind that glamorous cover shot lurks the same caustic wit, rapid fire delivery and acoustic punk setting. Who could resist a song called George Formby Breakdown? Or an album called Last Of the Real Rock Stars Is A Stupid Phrase- I Am Way Fitter Than Billy Fury Ever Was And I Don't Care What Anyone Says?

I have a bit of a hangover.

Pansy Melodic Underground

Mark Wynn, motormouth from York, is back with a new e.p. called The New Pansy Melodic Underground, available at Bandcamp and at name your own price. One of the best things about Mark's stuff - apart from his idiosyncratic scattergun approach and rapid fire delivery over knackered sounding guitars and the fact that his lyrics can make you laugh out loud and sometimes you have to rewind them to check what you just think you heard- is that the physical copies come with hand drawn leaflets and pamphlets (like the one above). The latest cd comes with a copy of Dirty Work #7. My favourite one off this e.p. is Cassie Ramone Dream Song #2, slower than some of the others, featuring something akin to a guitar solo and some ooh-ooh-ooh backing vocals. Like The Minutemen his songs are all really short, another one due any second soon, rattling by in a blur. Try him out.

Often, When I'm On The Fridge, People Tell Me To Get Off The Fridge

Mark Wynn, York's own machine-gun lyricist and chronicler of the absurdities of 21st century life, is back with not one but two new e.p.s and a brace of videos too. As he said in his email to me 'I make too much stuff'. I'm glad he does.

Mark gets called things like 'spoken word acoustic punk' and 'York based mumbler of  song and spiel'. Its determinedly lo-fi, done quickly and homemade. The cds come with handwritten booklets. This type of cottage industry thing is good so more power to Mark's elbow.

Bill Burroughs Was My Baby (one minute twenty two of lyrical gems- 'Bill Burroughs was an intellectual, he looked good in a full length coat, he wore spectacles and he knew a lot about stuff')...



And Dave Went Mental, which references Lauren Laverne and her playlist...



You can download either or both e.p.s, naming your own price, at Bandcamp, The Polar Bear Blah and Get Off The Fridge.

Social Situations

Don't all rush down to Skipsea Beach Club will you.

Mark Wynn, who I previously featured here, has another new album out (well, half an album), partly concerned with the fear of social situations and that's something we can all relate to isn't it? After my last post Mark sent me a cd and a handwritten, photocopied A5 booklet that came with it. I enjoyed the booklet as much as the album- more bands should make this kind of effort rather than just put who played what and thanks to Mum/lawyers/God. Mark has a way with words, funny and caustic and a little surrealistic and also tries to cram as many of them into his songs as he can. Possibly because the songs are so short, often under two minutes, and jam packed with rapidly strummed, punky, acoustic guitars.

I don't like to just copy and paste press releases but I think this one is worth it...

Desert Mine Music will start 2013 with its debut vinyl release. The release will be an album split between The Sorry Kisses and Mark Wynn, and will be entitled 'Social Situations'. Both of each artist's sides of the album will be available separately as digital downloads.

The Sorry Kisses' contribution is their fourth release on Desert Mine Music, following 2011's 'Keep Smiling', and features their trademark fuzz-wrapped guitars, double-tracked vocals and, this time, a more relaxed Lemonheads-esque sound. The core duo of Hayley Hutchinson and Sam Forrest recorded the songs in their own home studio, the Factory Of Unprofessional Sound, in November 2012.

Mark Wynn is a recent addition to the Desert Mine roster, and 2012 saw him release no less than four albums in this time. His side of 'Social Situations' features twelve songs packed in under twenty minutes, and illustrates Wynn's knack of blending despair, humour and kitchen-sink realism in a new-found lo-fi acoustic punk setting.

The project came together after a chance meeting on Hallowe'en 2012 in their shared hometown of York, when both parties realised their fear of social situations and decided to pour their combined insecurities into creating this limited edition vinyl release on Desert Mine Music.

It comes out on Record Store Day (this coming Saturday).

This is Tooth Decay from an album called It Hasn't Got A Title Yet But When I Think Of One I'll Let You Know.

I Thought You Were Usually Dennis Law, Sir?

'I'm Bobby Charlton, it's too cold to play as a striker today'.

I've more or less given up with unsolicited music submissions from bands emailing me looking for some (admittedly limited) publicity. I can't keep up with music I choose to listen to never mind anything else. But this popped into my Inbox the other day and caught my eye.

'Hi Swiss Adam,
I'm Mark Wynn, a spoken, word, noise, man/boy from York. My latest album, "Eggs,  Kes

and that bike I never bought you even though that I would like to' is set to be released

on Desert Mine Music in mid February. In a recent review by NineHertz.co.uk I was described

as being "Like a young John Cooper Clarke but less angry and more Half Man Half Biscuit."

On his Bandcamp page Mark says this about the album...

This is a collection of song noise things I made in December 2012 January 2013. Some of them are true things and some of them I just overheard and wrote down in public places so I'm not sure if they're true... not sure that it really matters... 

Mark's songs are endearingly ramshackle: acoustic guitars, clapping, occasional snatches of feedback, never less than interesting lyrics, some rapid fire delivery, some very Northern English references, and some sharp observations about modern life that'll make your ears prick up. And getting Kes on dvd in HMV in exchange for a cd he got for Christmas he didn't want, a dvd he'll probably watch only once. You can get the album as a download (pay what you want, free if you like) here. You may as well eh? I like it, you should too.