Josh Weller at The Macbeth

Josh Weller at The Macbeth

21 July, 2008
by: Evolmike

Revivalism seems to crop up more and more with each passing generation. It's inevitable. We're not allowed to like what our parents liked, that's one of the unwritten rules of progress. However, most of us don't even know what our grandparents liked, which is why it manages to slip stealthily under the radar. If there was one slice of music history that I felt would surely never get the revivalist treatment, it would be music hall. Light-hearted, inoffensive, irreverent songsmithery was the done thing in the early 20th century (think George Formby) and any of today's youth would surely react to it using patronising monosyllabic chestnuts like "sweet," "quaint" and occasionally "camp." But when it comes to Josh Weller and his cohorts The Mules and Lucy and the Caterpillar, it seems to be the angle they're taking, so one struggles to find anything patronising to say.

Admittedly, The Mules supply the kind of Celtic pub-folk that has never really gone out of fashion in the... well I guess you'd call it the ‘underground overground’ scene (they're not Wombles, but you could see them pulling off some convincing covers.) Lucy (‘the Caterpillar’ is the rather inspired pet name for her guitar) is a little more intriguing, if only to the psychoanalytically alert. She comes across as modest, possibly shy, and principally concerned with all things whimsical and cute, like owls and bumblebees and what not. Her unwavering Mona Lisa smile and bright, androgynously shaped hair come together to paint a picture of a self-ordained pixie priestess, happily skipping through a fairytale land of her own creation. One can't help but wonder what lies underneath this carefully deliberated air of innocence.

Josh Weller's stage persona is a similar tapestry of self-defiance. When I first checked him out, I automatically thought "Graham Coxon called it first" but he's a bit more dissociated than that. You can tell he's purposefully working the Buddy Holly/Woody Allen frame, but you get the feeling it might be in the name of post-post-modern satire. He's not as meek and softly spoken as one might think. He really belts out the notes, high and low alike, and he's no stranger to what guitarists call a ‘fret gurn’. Opening (after the first of several sloppy but well held false starts) with waltzy swing number ‘What Will My Girlfriend Say’ and the show's highlight, the delightfully creepy and carnival-esque ‘Circus’ he transports the listener into the mind of a character, but doesn't insist that the character is him.

He has a knack for commenting on those ridiculous situations in which we all occasionally somehow find ourselves, mainly concerning the helplessness and dishonesty of modern relationships (He even appears to out the adulterous actions of a friend of his in the audience.) To me he seems preoccupied with such subjects, even to the point of obsession. I suppose a niche is a niche, but he really panders to it sometimes. His single ‘Pretty Girls’ seems to be a harsh vilification of the mentality of good-looking people. He includes the line "some good-looking schmuck." There is a great deal of irony to this, and I sincerely hope it's deliberate. I found myself thinking "Josh... you're a good-looking and highly charismatic guy, with legions of pretty girls hanging on your every word. Either you're a bit of a hypocrite, or you're dabbling in multi-layered irony to the point of genius."

That's right - He's a popular guy pretending to be a geek. As a genuine geek, I should be offended by this, but I guess I'm just happy that the tables might be finally turning.


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Evolmike