…Wait a minute, who in the hell are Jack Boggan Band?
The answer may be more painful then the bliss that is ignorance.
With a man in drag holding a guitar for the promotional leaflet, you’d be forgiven for being curious. As the blurb states, Boggan created the band in 1992 with various friends and colleagues and have influences from Joni Mitchell to Bad Company.
Stare in awe, like you would at a Plane crash, as you listen to Jack Boggan Band’s Arcadia. The first thing that will hit you, and I mean
With some cheesy country-style riffs, Arcadia kicks off with “Arcadia”. Its bootleg sound sets a precedent for the rest of the album, making you believe you are actually watching them live! Joy!
Following “Arcadia” is “Short Sadie”, which features a keyboard intro that you won’t soon forget, like a MIDI file on steroids…make that crack. Please refrain from skipping this “great” song too early, as you’ll miss a wonderful monologue accompanying this tune and, trust me, for better or worse, your life is not complete without hearing the heartfelt laments of Jack Boggan….
Arcadia moves from the banal to the absurd with its sixth track, “Used To Be A Hero”, a Liverpudlian attempt at a Chas and Dave type ditty. The synthesizers are out in full force with this one and aren’t taking any survivors. Psychotic, plastic beats and notes emanate as if trying to summon Moog from the grave just to make him hang his head in shame.
Needless to say this album is pretty bad and it won’t be getting Jack Boggan Band noticed or signed any time soon. That said there is a stroke of unintentional genius about the whole endeavour (bear with me on this).
With Arcadia, Jack Boggan Band has managed to capture the dismal sound, appalling style and tacky riffs that are so recurring within small-town pubs of North West England. Having been witness to one such atrocious gig (a ‘Crowded House Tribute’). It’s amazing just how expertly Jack Boggan Band fills you with a depression that one can only know when drinking in a dingy bar while contemplating your 9-5 existence working at the local warehouse. Perhaps for this reason Arcadia could be viewed as an anthropological study in musical form…or maybe I’m clutching at straws.
I doubt that you’ll ever be able to get hold of this album but if you do stumble across its path and decide to give it a listen at least find solace in the fact that Jack Boggan Band are, “Passionate about what we do” which is more than can be said about the majority of commercial tripe out there.
