Today was a lot of fun. I’m just off the train from recording one of the best groups there ever was: Television Personalities. The main inspiration behind Creation Records, Kurt Cobain’s favourite band, you know?

Anyway, we did one song and to celebrate I said that I’d put up the A-side from their new 7″ People Think That We’re Strange which came out on Monday. However, I couldn’t find it in time so instead here’s my favourite song by them, “Silly Girl”. It’s taken from the classic And Don’t the Kids Just Love It LP which came out on Rough Trade in 1980.

The combination of punk, 60s youth culture references and madcap psychedelia typifies the Television Personalities sound, the baby of their only constant member Dan Treacy, of whom I’m a huge fan. I’d never met him before today however and so I only had reputation to base any sort of preconceptions on. Guy’s been in a bit of trouble in the past but no point in going into that here. Turns out that they all couldn’t have been sweeter. Treacy, king of the one-liners (”I don’t know of the middle 8. Is it somewhere off the north circular? I don’t go there”), nailed his guitar and vocals in one take, changed about 90 percent of the words at the very last minute, went to sleep for a bit, then rolled back in to do a stylophone solo. There were daytime super strength lagers, Doritos, electric sitars, lush psychedelic Ebow freakouts, Radiohead and Titus Andronicus shout-outs on record. Everything really. The whole thing was pretty amazing to witness. He is basically the most punk rock guy that there is.

It’s as far away from how it was intended that it doesn’t matter at all. I’ll finish it and let you hear it soon. In the meantime…

Listen:

Television Personalities - “Silly Girl”

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RODAIDH MCDONALD