September 19, 1998

(Birdstyle)

The cover art advises on the perfect golf tee-off stance, the band snap inside shows four snot-dribbling urchins loitering around a petrol pump as if picking their moment to snort the bastard dry....

6 / 10 THE COVER ART ADVISES ON THE perfect golf tee-off stance, the band snap inside shows four snot-dribbling urchins loitering around a petrol pump as if picking their moment to snort the bastard dry. They joyride around the Glasgow punk ghettos, yet are signed to a label based in hyper-posh Hove.

Their song titles - 'In The Lee Of A Steeple', 'More Fuel For Future Fires' - suggest dappled 1972 afternoons spent prancing around Chapterhouse college quads dressed as giant lillies, but sound like Idlewild being anally probed with hot hedgehogs. They are Motor Life Co and they are not close friends with Mr Sense.

A few disparate facts can be gleaned from the debut mini-album, however. Their record collections consist entirely of scratched Sebadoh and Buffalo Tom B-sides. They consider this mighty rock lark to be fairly trivial. And they don't know how to tune their guitars.

Stodgy yet insubstantial rock esoterica in itself, '(birdstyle)' does at least show that the burgeoning Scotpunk revival isn't scared to venture over to the wrong side of the tracks and have the choruses beaten out of it. But for now the Motor Lifers lead off with a par.

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