Another of my favorite indie tracks in my youth. Can I say 'indie' anymore? Ten years ago the term had meaning, but I get the impression this has faded. I'm talking about bands who recorded for small independent labels, obviously. Anyway, I have a special fondness for McCarthy, since they played at the first live show I ever attended. It was on March 3rd 1990 at the Bowen West Theatre in Bedford, England. Were you there? I know at least one member of this site was (how's it going, Phil?).

Anyway, this is another superbly evocative track for me, with layers of nicely picked guitars, and some intense drumming. The vocals are heartfelt in a way that unkind people might call 'weedy'; I think they're brilliant, needless to say. McCarthy were a superb indie band with jangly Wedding Present-style guitars and a political edge. Tim Gane later went on to form Stereolab, who I also like a lot, but in a very different way.

Another fast and furious assault with incendiary guitars! There's really not much more to say than that. They have a number of other great songs, like "The Well-Fed Point of View" (also on this LP, their third and best) the single "This Nelson Rockefeller" (which is on the compilation "That's All Very Well But"), and a handful on their first LP "I Am A Wallet". Their second LP had the best title, "The Enraged Will Inherit The Earth", but the weakest material.

The "MP" in the title means Member of Parliament, from which you can guess that McCarthy wrote mostly political songs. They were together from about 1985 to 1990, at which time they split up (Tim Gane and Laetitia Sadier went on to form Stereolab, of which I have a couple of CDs that so far do little for me).