Andy Shanks

I know Andy Shanks from The Record Room, or more accurately The Smile Shop, and have been nagging him with praise ever since he started posting his music. Andy's a very talented songwriter who can equal his heroes Alex Chilton and Rick Nielsen pretty easily. And that's not something most people find easy, particularly professionals like Rivers Cuomo. It makes me sad that Weezer, Oasis, and Green Day can find success that people like Shanks can't, because he actually writes pop songs with some sincerity and substance (and I like Weezer!). Just listen to the performance on "Anger Mgt.," a track on the MySpace page for Andy's new band The Shivs. The song's only been posted for about two days, but I've listened to it at least 20 of the 97 times it's been played.

Like much of my favorite music, this is a catchy song with a lot of noise. It makes me think of the Sex Pistols, Cheap Trick, Nirvana, Big Black, the Weirdos, the Stooges, etc. It looks like he has a Jazzmaster in the photo on the left, which makes sense. J Mascis abused one wonderfully in Dinosaur Jr., and the solo on "Anger Mgt."--which is impossible to forget--could only come from a few guitars. Actually, it reminds me a bit of Eddie Van Halen, who knew how to use unusual sounds to make music aimed at a pretty broad range of people. Early Devo also pushed the same hybrid, with less success, financially speaking.

Despite the superficial aspects of Andy's work, the main reason I like him is because his music reminds me of the music I got into when I dove in head first and started buying four or five albums a week. Once I found the Sex Pistols I got really serious about music. I was made fun of mercilessly in junior high and high school because of my devotion to them, the Velvet Underground, Devo, Pere Ubu, Television, the New York Dolls, the Stooges, the Clash, the Ramones, the Weirdos, Crass, and so many others, but that music really got me through some bad family stuff and opened me up to a supportive world I didn't know existed. It was a friend and it was inspiring. These freaks were actually recording and pressing up their own records. Maybe I could do something, too? As my interest grew I started collecting more of the bootlegs: Sex Pistols live shows, Television demos, Rocket From the Tombs. I liked how this music was secret, even though to me it seemed amazingly accessible. I liked the noise and the bootleg sound, and let's face it--the songs were really catchy. They were also smart, way better and more of the world than what was on the radio (Fastball???). I couldn't, and still don't, understand why people have such an aversion to it. I'm referring to people who listen to the radio, not the hipsters that have sucked this niche dry. I was always looking for and always in need of a Sex Pistols, just as I've been looking for something like Andy Shanks since then, whether it's with the Shivs, his old band the Conniptions*, or any other grouping. I complain often about how exhausted this kind of music is, but I always forget that when someone who can pull it off comes along. And we haven't thrown up any new technology to move on, so we're kind of stuck with the Shivs. Which is nice, because I never thought I'd find myself listening to unknown music made in the middle of nowhere so obsessively, but I guess that's how all our favorites starts out: in Hamburg, on Denmark Street, Rockford, and Springfield, too.


* I still have most of the mp3s Andy sent me of their recordings, including "Take it Back," "Tough Nut to Crack," "Fake You (All the Way)," "Can't Stay Here," "(She Keeps Me) Out of the Bars," "Played Out," and a 10-minute cover of "96 Tears." They sound like Elvis Costello playing with the early Damned. "Fake You" is my favorite, with just a hint of the Raspberries' "Go All the Way" in the chorus.