I just chanced upon this; my first published artical.
The 3rd annual Pro Show (the extra curricular money spinner for Quiksilver and whoever their major booze sponsor is this year) was everything thing you’d expect it to be.
The sun shone down gloriously – a whole host of twelve-teen year olds, who couldn’t hold their piss, fought and fell over hilariously – and as promised, the music rocked relentlessly.
Their was a stellar line-up of home grown talent, including; Bliss n Esso, Dukes Of Windsor, Something With Numbers, Ash Grunwald and more, all playing awesome sets. But…That’s another story.
I’d like to turn my confused and disgruntled attention to Matt McHugh of Beautiful Girls fame and of Beautiful Girls fame. No there isn’t an echo, He’s just the front man of the Beautiful Girls A-Team,
the Beautiful Girls B-Team and now Matt McHugh.
Now, I’m a massive Beautiful Girls fan, and therefore, a Matt McHugh fan.
But, if I cut a one-third-sized piece from my favourite chocolate cake, then, although that is a big piece, it’s still just a piece. The two-thirds remaining is the chocolate cake, in my mind anyway.
Such has been my stance since the first Beautiful Girls line-up change. Matt altered what was a beautiful thing, kept the name and created… ok, another beautiful thing. So I swallowed and continued loving. Now he’s gone out ‘on his own’, with a band I might add, and written some new songs.
Songs that, during The Pro Show, I couldn’t help notice… that I didn’t notice. It’s not that his new stuff isn’t good. It’s just that his new stuff is nothing new. The crowd did seem to react fairly vigorously to Matt’s new musical substance, but then again, 80% of them were over-reacting to every other substance sampled that day too. Maybe if these tunes were new tracks from the Beautiful Girls, I’d find myself more compelled to love them, rather than from the guy who felt he was held back by the Beautiful Girls… twice.
The idea of changing band members (obviously) is nothing new. Nor is changing band members and keeping the band name. The thorn in my side is twisted when a majority of the band is altered and the name remains. When a 3 piece splits, imbalance is inevitable. Can the minority of that divorce, take the name and all the kudos that come with it? I say not. Even if the minority is the creative firepower behind the name. You can’t take the eggs out of an omelette, and if you could, is it still an omelette?
A more famous case in point is the, Andrew Stockdale of, Wolfmother one. We’re yet to see how that unfolds.
Am I taking all this too personally? Am I just a jaded, discarded ex-lover?
Should I build a bridge?