The Kirwan Song

[vivfox]

The Amazing (hell, even their name suggests obliviousness to any contemporary trends, that’s the name of a glam rock band circa 1973 if ever there was one) have a self-titled debut album that is on one hand beholden to the UK folk revival bands of the late sixties, such as Denny/Thompson period Fairport Convention, and on the other a certain seventies Grateful Dead-esque woozy quality, along with pseudo-Neil Young songwriting. There is also the small matter of… Fleetwood Mac.

The Amazing would probably be flattered by a comparison with that most bloated of rock juggernauts. The first song on their record, ‘The Kirwan Song’ is an exaggerated, but excellent, tribute to Danny Kirwan. Kirwan was the Mac guitarist from 1968 to 1972, and The Amazing apparently have a strange fetish for him. There are indeed Mac-ish touches all over the LP, certainly in the reverb-happy guitar sounds eeked out by Reine Fiske, but The Amazing have a more diverse palette than just humdrum white blues. The odd slip into Americana and even shoegaze ensure that.

The Mac affiliation is furthered by the fact The Amazing are something of a Swedish rock supergroup. Fiske and drummer Johan Holmegard are full-time members of psych hipsters Dungen, while singer Christoffer Gunrup is a prominent Swedish solo artist and multi-instrumentalist Fredrik Swahn a member of Dream Boy. That’s appropriate, because these fellows really, really like Fleetwood Mac. An unfalteringly inventive yet painstakingly and gloriously derivative new band.

http://www.t5m.com/barnaby-smith/int...e-amazing.html

[bretonbanquet]

The song has some vaguely Kirwanesque touches, but it doesn't really sound much like his music. Except of course that they lifted "Sunny Side of Heaven" into their song wholesale Kirwan better have got a credit for that, or else it's a seriously rum deal - take out SSOH and the song barely exists. And I don't think I've ever heard a drummer wreck a song quite like Holmegard did this one

The last 1:20 is a bit more like it, there are some definite Bare Trees-style noodlings there, but it's all taken from SSOH. And the drummer's still awful It's good though that they're drawing attention to Danny, providing he gets royalties for this, of course.

The other song that I keep seeing described as Kirwanesque is "Dragon", which sounds so much like Nick Drake, it's unbelievable. You keep thinking it's going to launch into "Northern Sky" or something, and with this band's penchant for borrowing other people's songs, it's not unlikely.

There is one very good Kirwan-style player out there though, even if he is certifiably crazy.

[bretonbanquet]

I asked The Amazing if Danny got a credit for the song, and they told me he did, so that's awesome Hopefully it sells a million