Now sit down, children, and let wise old NME count on our seven gnarled fingers the number of indie bands who have successfully recorded singles that crossbreed their traditional jingle-jangle with the cheerful, Lilt-flavoured sound of calypso. Number one: Super Furry Animals’ ‘Northern Lites’. Number two… oh bugger, alright, it’s The Holloways. Now I haven’t seen the video yet and they might all be prancing around in black-face for all I know, but from here, as NME squeezes out the last sullen squirts of summer like rancid lotion from a suncream bottle, it all sounds a hilariously good idea. Crunchy guitar cuts out a merry ska rhythm. Bass bounces around like beaters on a steel drum. Very possibly, a pair of ashtrays liberated from the local boozer clack together like hollowed-out coconuts. And here unfolds a joyful testament to the importance of living in the moment, not worrying about debt, terrorism or the forthcoming heatwave/ice age, and how ace it is to tape things off the radio (do people still do that?).
Anyway, it goes like this. Step one: “I can get a record player…” Step two: “…and a generator!” Step three: “Generate the music that makes you feel you better!” Indeed, it goes like that pretty much all the way through, until that bit stops and there’s 10 seconds of moshpit calypso at the end. If you’re not smiling, you’re dead. Or you’re a racist. One of the two.