The Bookhouse Boys

by Jim Merrett

For a few trumpets more

"Wild surf guitars tussle with a scorched soundtrack of Morricone proportions. All this from a band of mariachis more accustom to trawling the dusty plains and drinking holes of north London. Chalk Farm never sounded so desolate."

Famously, Quentin Tarantino wrote his best work around his record collection. Nine-piece the Bookhouse Boys turn this on its head. Their name is borrowed from that ever-trusted indie reference point Twin Peaks, being the titular town’s own variant of the Masons, don’t y’know. Bands with their own secret handshakes we like.

But while they would sit comfortably in a Lynch production, it is QT that they are gunning for, horns blazing, in full-on widescreen Pulp Fiction merged with spaghetti western epic fashion. Not just Dick Dale but the intro to ‘Tonight’ beckons exactly as Urge Overkill’s ‘Girl, You’ll Be A Woman Soon’ does. Wild surf guitars tussle with a scorched soundtrack of Morricone proportions. All this from a band of mariachis more accustom to trawling the dusty plains and drinking holes of north London. Chalk Farm never sounded so desolate.

Cinema is a good pointer – with nine members jostling to be heard, and a boy/girl combo sharing the vocals (it’s not totally and all-boys club), you’re going to need vision. It’s also probable that at least some of this band have heard of Nick Cave. Single 'Dead' blazes with the engulfing rush of The Bad Seeds unleashed and no-holds-barred. With that track’s help, their eponymous debut begins like a shot of adrenalin to the heart and rarely lets off. But all engines run out of steam eventually – closing chapters 'Baby I Gotta Go', 'I Believe' and – spoiler alert – the album’s hidden track, a Johnny Cash-inspired jaunt, let the pace drop enough to avoid cardiac arrest.

This band with no name (err, only they happen to have a name) are bound to amble into a seedy den in your town soon. And should they, make like a frontier bounty hunter and sniff them out immediately.

Be the first to comment on this article