If you don't come from Bristol chances are you are unaware of the sonic delights that are The Pudding. Formed in 1992 in the woodwork room of Sam and Alf's school they have decreased in size, loosing Kate as singer to Edinburgh university, but have improved immeasurably from a good band to a phenomenal one, and no I'm not exaggerating. Unlike a lot of local bands The Pudding have recorded a lot of their stuff which is readily available (see bottom of page). The purpose of the following pages is three fold- to review, in sorts, their first double album, and also their recent gig at the Fleece, (see, even a proper venue where Gorky's themselves have delighted) and to try and convert the non believers or those who simply haven't heard.
The double album consists of 32 tracks split between side As, "Greedy Guts," and side Es, "The Drums Album." The songs cover a whole gamut of emotions and themes ranging from over confidence ('I'm sorry to say that I'm better than you'), regret ('Static isn't strong enough to stick us together') to being pissed off with someone's fake depression ('The records you dig are dead fucked up'), relationships, incest (the question of the day being is this autobiographical, the answer I don't know. Katie wrote it and I don't know her so I can't ask), and being different as a few random examples. This tape contains a number of real crackers, namely "Oliver's Secret Monkey Plant," "Like You," "The Amazing Vacuum Kid," "Mongoloid," (the only cover of the album, originally by Devo) and "Now Wash Your Hands". All of them are good, but these are exceptionally so. I don't know who or what I could liken them to because they have their own distinctive sound, but perhaps a mixture of Belle and Sebastian (when Isobel is singing), possibly a touch of Urusei Yatsura/ Placebo, Sebadoh, and maybe early Blur. I asked Sam how he would describe their sound and he said he hated answering that question and that he found it really difficult as they make a very conscious effort to not sound like anyone, but gave me an eclectic list of people they really enjoy listening to which included Diana Ross, Sonic Youth, Captain Beefheart, The Pixies, anything by Bob Mould, The Beautiful South, Aretha Franklin and Ra Ra Ra. This tape serves as a very good introduction to the band and gives a glimpse of what to expect from them now, but is also a very good thing in it's own right and I would definitely recommend it.
Ok, their set at the fleece. I am unable to scrutinise it song by song as I regret to say I am unfamiliar with almost all of it as it is new. The only song I had heard before was Sunlight. The Pudding were a lot louder than I thought they were going to be which took me a little by surprise and the songs have been honed down to short sharp numbers which retain~n audience attention continuously. I thought they would be good, based purely on the repeated listening of my tape but I must admit I had reservations as to how good they would sound without Katie whose voice is really lovely and the subsequent lack of harmonies between her and Sam, but it didn't matter. There was no tangible aural loss, if anything it has improved Sam's voice as he is now the principal singer. One of the things I like about The Pudding (here forward to be referred to as TP as every time I type The I type Teh and it is annoying me) is that none of them are afraid of microphones. At various points in the evening there were three people singing and in between songs all of them were unafraid to indulge in trivial banter to fill time whilst tuning guitars, especially Oh, the bass player who performed a number of impromptu little puppet I Tim Booth style dances and a very funny rendition of a song bemoaning the awfulness of being green (as no one notices you, which they would if you were red) with a Kermit the frog in front of his mouth. Musically they are very tight and were very professional in their demeanour behaviour, going on stage at exactly half nine as advertised even though there were only about 20 people in the room (numbers quickly picked up) and just the way they worked through their set. They even had a photographer there, and it is courtesy of her that this is illustrated. Some songs that they did play, but probably not in this order, were "Land On Four Paws," "Total Greed," and "Crawling On All Fours," but I can't really tell you much more about them than that, as I'd need to listen to them a lot more.
The evening ended on Sunlight. I feel this song warrants a whole paragraph all to itself it is so good. Like SOOOOOOOO good. I think it would maybe one of my desert island discs, and that really is saying something. I had heard it before the gig when one of my friends played it acoustically in his lounge because he loves it too and it sounded incredible, but it hadn't really prepared me for the awesome beauty of it played properly in all it's glory. It is just SUCH a beautiful song, really staggeringly good. And the passion with which TP played it was incredible to watch. Each member totally consumed with it, moving in their own way, the sweat pouring down Alt's face as he really went for it and I think it's fair to say every single person in the audience, including the barmen, were like woah shit and were left reeling slightly at the end of it all. The clapping deservedly went on for hours.
If you would like to wrap your ears round anything by TP write to Sam at the following and he will happily oblige. They are currently in the process of putting together some wonderful new delights: 24 Allington Road, Southville, Bristol, B53 lPS

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