It’s almost a given that old rockers will put their amps aside from time to time, put on cowboy hats and play mildly ironic acoustic music full of songs about killing people and losing their girls. France’s Flu Flu Birds fit the bill on all fronts.
“Play Your Favourite Stupid Songs” is four tracks of hayseed cowpunk from members of The Stoneage Romeos and Ganbangers. Those names might not mean much to you but I can tell you that The Stoneage Romeos especially rock like motherfuckers. So you'd expect this diversion down a country backroad to be good.
And it is. “Stevie’s Got No Job” sounds like Stevie’s been sacked and four of his mates are rubbing it in. The first thought here was that, hopefully Stevie’s not too sensitive about his lack of employment, but it’s soon clear that Stevie is no longer on the planet, so I suppose it’s OK to put the boot in. “Flu Flu Bird” is a chunk of silliness in the same spirit of “Dubrovnik Girls” and fairly tuneful as well.
On the A side, “Scumbag Diary” is as catchy as hay fever around hay bales and “Kili Kili Power” is a simple verse-chorus thing that’s swept along by driving acoustic guitars and a finger-picked solo.
I almost knocked a martini off the rating for this because these guys keep asking me to play Candy Crush Saga on Facebook. Then I saw they had a tribute song to Tamara from HITS and Gazoonga Attack so I realised they can’t be all bad.
Flu Flu Birds on Facebook (beware - they like to play Candy Crush Saga)
