The Higsons: "Tear The Whole Thing Down" (2Tone CHSTT21, 1982)
A quick one tonight for the start of a busy week. If you've ever been to the point in a project where it feels as though it would be easier to simply start over and forget everything you've done so far except the mistakes (remembering those so you don't repeat them), you will appreciate at least the title of this post-punk barnstormer from the Higsons.
Hopefully, you'll also appreciate what a great song it is. For me, this is a case of accidentally discovering the history of a musician you already loved, namely Terry Edwards, who has played trumpet on a bunch of Tindersticks records (as well, research tells me, as albums by many other artists, including Nick Cave and Tom Waits). Tindersticks is one of my favorite bands, but I'd never looked into the past of their most frequent sideman until I heard this song, looked up the band and discovered that it's him playing trumpet and sax on it.
Edwards has put together the most accomplished musical career of any member of the Higsons in the years since the band broke up (that was in 1986), but another member of the band has gone on to greater mainstream fame. That'd be Charlie Higson, whom the band was named for, and who is now a comic pundit on British television and a prolific author. He is currently--no joke--writing a series of zombie-horror books for children, and he's the author of several books about the young James Bond. I haven't read any of those books, but I wonder what they're like--the whole appeal of Bond is that he's an adult who can basically get away with anything. His days at Eton were likely not to be quite so free-wheeling.
Anyway, The Higsons were actually quite a good band, if one that fit easily into a very specific U.K. post-punk mold that also produced Pigbag, Maximum Joy, Shriekback and countless others. "Tear The Whole Thing Down" is their bottled-lightning moment, in my opinion--it fairly towers over even the best of their other singles. Bassist Colin Williams is firmly in charge, and Higson himself is in his finest form. On the b-side, "Ylang Ylang,"* he reverts to a spot-on David Byrne impression, but here he sounds more like himself, or at least a version of himself that was a more distinctive personality.
*My wife and I once bought a spray for the shower that's supposed to keep mildew from forming. It was Target's Method brand, and the scent was Ylang Ylang. I do not recommend this scent. For a week after we used it once, our bathroom smelled like something very pretty had died a horrible, horrible death in there.
