"Wanting to be in the best rock band in the world is still part of it. But it has also become about having a nice time with my friends." Has Andrew Falkous, the frontman of acerbic/comic noise-rock terrorists Mclusky, mellowed? Not on the evidence of the sold-out homecoming show I had the privilege and pleasure of attending at Clwb in the heady pre-lockdown days of December 2019.
The reformed band - with The St Pierre Snake Invasion's Damien Sayell playing the part of former bass loon Jon Chapple - will be back in their spiritual home in September, this time to mark the twentieth anniversary of the release of Mclusky Do Dallas, a record that you could call "seminal" if you wanted to make Falkous cringe. JR Moores recently spoke to him about near-death experiences, faking divorce and "weird debt confusion" for the Guardian.
While their barbed, sardonic humour is - I would suggest - particularly British, there were Americans who understood the language of Mclusky Do Dallas too. Take Jeff Terich, for instance, who's written this retrospective appreciation of the "anxious and agitated, misanthropic and hilarious" album for Treble, singing the praises of its "bilious earworms" and the band's "anxious, aggressive music that boasted the all too rare quality of being pure, destructive fun without the baggage of giving three tenths of a shit".
Not being a Pixies fan, I'm going to ignore that particular comparison - but it was pleasing to learn that Japandroids have regularly covered 'To Hell With Good Intentions'. The Canadians might not have the same sardonic wit, but they too make a punkish racket and put smiles on faces in doing so.
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