Sean Cook - The Flies/Lupine Howl. Nuclear Bunker Discs.

Guardian of The Bunker

Photo credit: Photo taken by Andy Jenks

Including Spiritualized, stopping off at Dr John along the way, heading off to Lupine Howl before parking up at The Flies, Sean Cook's musical road has been littered with many highs & plenty of musical moments that will last long past the end of the road itself. But we're not there yet, not by a long shot.

Nobody needs reminding of Spiritualized's work so we won't. We'll just say that to us it sounded at times like Jason Pierce wasn't fully in control of his own band,that there were other forces at work. We'll cheekily call this the Sean Cook years...if you doubt me, listen to Lupine Howl, then listen to These Blues from Pure Phase. See? Yeah...

Lupine Howl were epic. Didn't give a fuck with lyrics to match. I still play them, I've destroyed so many Lupine Howl albums I've forgotten how many copies I've had to buy. My house is littered with album booklets - you're not allowed in unless you can recite the lyrics to Vapourizer. I drove to Bristol to watch them twice in a week so I know it was more than just two albums. Massive Attack are one of my all-time favourite bands but I'd made the journey to watch Lupine Howl support them. Think about that one, if you will...

Two albums, all too short lived.

Then onto The Flies. The change in vocal quality that had been unmistakeable in Sean Cook from the first Lupine Howl album to the second had reached new levels. He was definitely the singer, rather than singing.

Shit, he was now a crooner...

All Too Human came out to worthy praise. There's a list of quotes which bear closer inspection but we'll point out two: "In these pick and mix musical times with the steady demise of the album, LPs as 'works of art' are increasingly rare. Fortunately there are a handful of bands that refuse to succumb to the MP3 downloading whitewash. Bristol three-piece The Flies have created an album that is as much an artistic entity as it is a collection of individually compelling songs." — Emma Padley, BBC.CO.UK. Praise indeed.

"The Bristol Sound's not dead, it's just chilling out. Or, in the case of this debut from The Flies, creeping around the seedier back-streets in search of sensual gratification." — Andy Gill, THE INDEPENDENT. Ha, we like that one too...

"Then silence, until now. There's action on the band pages, there's old tracks, new tracks & videos being uploaded. So maybe it's The Flies, chapter 2. I for one am happy to wait & see.

Sean Cook spiritedly took up the Nuclear Bunker challenge & I'm delighted. I did wonder, not just what he'd choose but how he'd choose them & whether it would be colourful. I wasn't dissappointed...He told us:

"Mmmm...five records I would take into a nuclear bunker. It’s a tough one. Firstly because I think I would need about 500 LPs at least just to stop me going insane. Secondly, I’m not a maker of lists or someone who imagines himself in hypothetical situations (shagging Uma Thurman withstanding). When I’m asked what my favourite record of all time is, I honestly don’t know what to say."

"First 3 tracks, 1 from Lupine Howl & 2 from The Flies, then onto Sean's 5 choices:

1. Sex Pistols – Never Mind The Bollocks - "The only way I can think about this that makes any sense is to come up with the most consistent record - a record where you never have to skip any of the tracks - and that record, at least for me, is Never Mind The Bollocks so I guess I should start here. First off, this LP constitutes the official definition of the phrase “all killer, no filler”. There truly isn’t a weak track on it and not even The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Beach Boys, The Stooges or The 13th Floor Elevators can claim to have made a record with that level of consistency. It’s such an exciting record – balls out, full knacker aggression from beginning to end. I first bought it when I was a kid and have worn out multiple copies since then but it still blows my head off today in exactly the same way as it did when I first heard it. At the risk of sounding like a South Bank Show cock, I genuinely think that this record is one of the great cultural achievements of the Twentieth Century being, as it is, a razor sharp reflection of British, if not global, sentiments of the time whilst also out-living all of its’ contemporaries in terms of relevance decades after its’ release. Obviously I have never spent too much time in a nuclear bunker but I would imagine there would be times when you would need a record to help you blow off some steam and I can’t think of a better one than this."

2. Roy Orbison – any collection with ‘In Dreams’ and ‘Crying’ on it - "(err…sounds a bit Alan Partridge… but I think you will find that when it comes to The Orb I know what I’m talking about). It’s hard for me to conceive of life, full stop, without Roy Orbison’s music. I’ll stay outside the bunker with my skin peeling off in disgusting, necrotic, radiated lumps if that is the only place that ‘In Dreams’ is playing. Trapped inside a bunker with no Roy – that’s some kind of Guantanamo Bay torture isn’t it? I could, reluctantly, live without the Pistols but I could never live without Roy Orbison."

3. The Doors – Strange Days - "I guess you would need some psychedelic stuff down there in the bunker ‘cos I would have made it a priority to smuggle something in even if I had to risk a few radiation burns to do it! Dark psyche mystery on ‘Strange Days’ and ‘Lost Little Girl’, some of the groups’ best song writing on ‘Moonlight Drive’ and ‘Love Me Two Times’ and full-tilt, epic, mad savagery on ‘When The Music’s Over’ all combine to make this The Doors’ best record – indispensable when you are off your tits!"

4. The Rolling Stones – Sticky Fingers - "There are not many bands that can make even one all-time classic record. Before they were shit, The Stones (with Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers and Exile On Main Street) made FOUR all-time classics…err...back-to-back! Let me repeat that, back-to-back! Shit me, that takes some going. The best of the four for me is Sticky Fingers. A coke-fuelled masterpiece that is essential listening for any evening on the Bonnie Prince. And let’s face it, when you are stuck in a bunker what else is there to do! The soaring, epic finale of Moonlight Mile is so unbelievably mind blowing it’s almost too much to bear and, believe me, I almost never give anyone that much credit."

5. Acetone – I Guess I Would - "Err…I guess I would need some kind of country gear down in the hole. Obviously, I could have gone for the greats like Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, The Louvin Brothers and The Flying Burrito Brothers, but instead I opted for these bad boys from LA ‘cos they never got enough credit when they were around and I always like to support the underdog. I’ve been in love with Acetone since they supported us in the States back in the Spiritualized days and still today they make a regular appearance in my all-too-frequent late night come down sessions. Well ahead of their time in terms of pre-dating the resurgence in country music, this LP of impossibly class country covers shows off the band in all their stoned glory. One of the best records of the last 20 years, it pisses all over the silly indie crap that was coming out of the UK at the time. Especially today, they make mummy’s boy acts like The Fleet Foxes look like babies poking their fingers in their own shit."