Music fans of a certain age will fondly remember listening to the John Peel show at 11 o’clock at night, either under the duvet, or with headphones, or were lucky enough to live in a house where they could listen to the radio at a decent enough volume to hear the music properly. And they will remember occasionally going “What the fucking hell is this?” as he happily played a song by some Uruguayan deathcore-folk-bagpipe-trance act, played at 45 rpm instead of 33¹. They will undoubtedly also hear something by a band they’d never heard of, who’d sent their record to to Peely with hardly any information, but he’d take a listen and decide he rather liked it and played it anyway.

In this day and age, it’s nearly impossible to get that same feeling. I sure as hell miss the randomness of a 50-something bloke just playing whatever he damned well felt like. Those days are gone, my friends. But I did get a tiny smidgeon running through my enormous inbox and stumbling across The Baxter Special. Well, I say The Baxter Special, I think the band call themselves Thank You Mr Keating and the record’s called The Baxter Special. I also think The Baxter Special is a better name for the band. Like Songs:Ohia and The Magnolia Electric Company. Where the hell am I going with this?

They sound a little like Dinosaur Jr locked in a cupboard with Thomas Pynchon, all noise and fuzz and words. This song’s called “Quite A Moustache”? What’s not to like?

You can find more about them at their site here, and buy the album and stuff. Maybe you’ll find out more about them than I did. I’ve just been sitting here listening to their songs and grinning like a bit of an idiot.

¹ Younger readers, you don’t know what you’re missing.

MP3: Quite A Moustache by Thank You Mr Keating