Thunder Lightning Strike by The Go! Team is on the shortlist for the Mercury Music Prize. And we’d love it if they won. Partly because we’ve got a fiver on them, and partly because their music is so extraordinarily fantastic – a day-glo mish-mash of Sonic Youth guitars, Northern Soul rhythms, handclaps, recorders, manic female rapping and cinematic bedroom lo-fi scratchiness.
If we were having a summer instead of the world’s wettest water shortage, the debut album by The Go! Team, Thunder Lightning Strike would easily soundtrack it. It’s joyous.
We caught up with the gentleman leader of The Go! Team, Ian Parton, to discuss Mark E Smith, the Mercury Music Prize and San Fran-motherfucking-cisco.
Who are you, and where are you?
Ian here – in a hotel room over looking the gates to Chinatown in San Fran-motherfucking-cisco.
Why should people buy your records?
Just download it –
How do you feel about being on the Mercury Music Prize shortlist?
As
much as I’m not an award ceremony kinda fella it does feel pretty good
to get acknowledgement for something done very cheaply and in a DIY
styley and released with very little fuss and money. Yeahhh.
How’s the world tour going? How is planet Earth reacting to the Go! Team?
Good – everywhere has sold out so far. People are shaking ass everywhere to varying degrees.
You were on an episode of Later With Jools Holland with Robert Plant and The Fall. Robert Plant was shit, wasn’t he?
Pretty
much, but – you know – he’s getting on, isn’t he? I’ve never really
been into Led Zep, so I wasn’t starstruck. The funniest thing was Mark
E Smith heckling him during his interview. The studio mics didn’t pick
that up, though.
What’s the sample clearing process like for a record like Thunder
Lightning Strike? You had some samples denied for the American release,
correct?
It’s a pain in the ass and is going pretty slow. People
aren’t really supposed to make records with this many samples in them.
Some people have denied use, so its rewrite time unfortunately.
How do you choose your track names?
I’m a sucker for slogans and keep pads full of stuff. I just pick words which somehow fit.
Your old band was called Dig The Slowness. What did they sound like?
How
the fuck did you find that out – I was about 17 then. It was with my
bro and then we became slot jockey – a kinda Pavement type band.
Who wrote the play An Inspector Calls?
I asked Jim our soundman
who’s sharing a room with me today and he says it might be William
Green. INCORRECT – it was JB Priestly, kids.
You apparently turned down an offer for your music to be used on a
McDonalds advert. Why? Would you ever use your music in a commercial?
A whole bunch of reasons – I turn down something every month. Yesterday I turned down old navy.
Preach about something you love (not related to the band) in 100 words.
Man
I ain’t got time to do 100 words but two films I love are Play It Again
Sam (the Woody Allen film) and Nuts In May (the Mike Leigh film).
What’s on the Go! Team iPod?
Too much stuff – I’m digging this Felt instrumental album at the mo.
Favourite movie soundtrack?
Has to be Midnight Cowboy.
Motorhead have Cheese And Chive Ruffles on their rider. What’s on yours?
Fruit for the ladies.
What are you going to do right now?
Soundcheck in a few minutes in Bimbos, San Francisco. I’ve just been doing super 8 around Chinatown.
Buy Thunder Lightning Strike from CD Wow for £8.75 inc free delivery
Visit The official Go! Team website – www.thegoteam.co.uk
[story by Stuart Heritage]