Tropical Fuck Storm
You Let My Tyres Down
Mistletone
You Let My Tyres Down, the third single from supergroup Tropical Fuck Storm (aka TFS – featuring members of The Drones, High Tension and Harmony), is a rocking outing that serves both as a point of contrast to the group’s first two singles and a reminder of the outfit’s technical and creative capacity.
The track starts like a psych-bathed Led Zeppelin bluesy number with an epic opening chord and solo riff fused together accompanied by crashing open snares and walking bassline. The brash opening gives way to a quieter verse, allowing Gareth Liddiard to detail the life of a troubled girl who is in remand “for the wounding of a rental car, and a ram raid in Sunshine,” before sparks fly again via distorted, tremolo barred notes that come in waves.
As the song’s intensity increases, the plot thickens, Liddiard explaining that the girl shouldn’t be given a second thought, effortlessly rhyming “losers” with “Vodka Crusiers” to pinpoint prejudice that exists due to girl’s background.
The inventive song structure steers the band away from the well trodden verse-chorus-verse dynamics of so many others, evoking something new from that rock ‘thing’ that is missing in many other artists. When Gareth and his cohorts mine the gallery of glorious riffs for inspiration, they reinvent embellishments, additions and subtractions and this allows the result to be genuinely unique. Compare that to Wolfmother, say, who might come out sounding like the carbon copy of an invoice written by Page and Plant for 1 x chunky riff.
It’s well worth investigating the very different cover of the Divinyls’ Back to the Wall on the B-side too. As Gareth said in a recent interview with X-Press, “We can’t be playing The Cramps or Chuck Berry styled rock and roll forever.”
MICHAEL D HOLLICK
