Demos

No Head No Headache - Sounds Fine

Charlie Southwell 26/02/2007

Rating: 2/5

No Head No Headache are blues rock but unfortunately, in terms of their genre, are probably ten years too late for the tail-end of this blues rockin' field. But on the other hand, they are also probably just in time for the NME to start bumming this kind of music after they bury new rave's second album, in their it's-not-new-anymore-itis. They also sport a fairly comedic name - though consider about the name of the EP, could they hear sounds, fine or not, without a head? No matter… I digress, back to their music.

Blues rock, gruff vocals, harmonic blues fretwork and backing vocals to spare. First song, is tremendously Bluesy, yet “Straight” reaches happy song structures similar to KC & The Sunshine Band despite writing Slash style solos with the pentatonic scale over the simplistic backing. The closing track of the EP shows a walk back to the older rock very similar to David Cloverdale's “Shake My Tree”. The whole CD has that post-Led Zep feel, and a band trying to write blues rock is always going to find it hard to escape previous bands because of the scarcity of notes that work well in the style, especially with such strong influences. Nonetheless great guitar work, and sturdy structures.

(There is a bizarre bonus track, preceded by some talking, I've yet to discover if this is from a film or something or if this is just the band messing about, just odd. The music after that interlude however is trad. Blues jamming, an interesting listen, and though not breaking any boundaries, rather easy to listen to, and this band I can imagine are HUGE amounts of fun live. Watch out for them)

No Head No Headache Myspace