The debut album from Flies On You is “Nothing To Write Home About”, released on September 3rd 2012. “I think “punk” is an overused word”, said Adam Ant, in the midst of “B-Side Baby”, chastising his girlfriend’s preference for the wilfully obscure. He may have been right. Flies On You overuse it a lot. Doug Aikman and Andy Watkins from Leeds, UK, who together comprise Flies On You, decided to form a band in mid-2011. They planned a punk rock combo: crude, demented songs, nothing over two minutes long. Pug Ugly. (This name was discarded. “Too close for comfort”, mused Doug, brushing a tear from his eye. You can understand their reluctance to appear in band photos.) It soon became apparent that their common ground goes far beyond The Distillers, NoMeansNo and an agreement that Jean-Jacques Burnel’s bass sound is just “the best”… Yugoslav indie, Belgian synth-punk, 60s chanteuses, Big Youth; here they found improbable plunder for their musical endeavours, but also discovered those shared peccadilloes that help to make a marriage work. Doug’s joy at finding Sweden’s answer to Thrilled Skinny is matched by Andy’s enthusiasm for discovering a Japanese Man Or Astro-man? Flies On You are the “b-side babies” of whom Adam wisely spoke. They merely tolerate the anaemic epithet “DIY post-punk” as a descriptor of their oeuvre. Needs must, etc. The debut album from Flies On You is “Nothing To Write Home About”, released in September 3rd 2012. There are surprises amongst its 18 tracks; hummable melodies, the occasional uplifting chorus, danceability, a certain pathos, eccentric digressions from the expected, a sensitivity and deftness of touch here and there which defy the Flies’ default setting of subtlety-free arse-kick. (Make the most of these now; there are no plans to include any such flowers-in-the-window-box on its fictitious follow-up, the “20 Minutes of Unrelenting Misery” EP.)
