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LP
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DIST 020LP
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From their beginnings in 1994 to their final show in March 2011, The Big Oaks certainly divided opinion. They were described as "the sort of cripplingly unfunny comedy music which could only be appreciated by the friends of the cretins involved, or Red Dwarf t-shirt wearing bell-ends who live with their mams," but for those of us who were around in the northeast underground music scene that loved them, it was a whole different story. In fifteen years they only played twenty shows, but nonetheless much deserved cult status in the northeast. At once troubled and bitter yet soul-reflecting, their sharply-observed, biting lyrics and fuzzed up instrumentation recalled many of the great British indie bands that used to pepper the Peel Festive '50s in the '80s. Their music encapsulates alienation, confusion, anger, loneliness, and (especially) belligerent humor. This music is an incredibly British deconstruction of punk-pop in a post-corporate, globalised, mass-media saturated world, mired in the tea-time and early evening TV of yesteryear, presumably as reference either to chief singer/songwriter Simon "John the Rat" Windsor's feelings of the past trauma or past fondness of his younger days. It's also fucking hilariously funny. Think The Shaggs, Ween, and Truman's Water. Simon passed away on 26 May 2011. Besides a bunch of cassettes that were made in the 90s, this album represents his life's work. The lion's share of Monster Turd was recorded in 2008, with the intention of a CD release on Distraction Records. We never did have the funds to release it, and with his family's blessing, and help from a very generous bunch of folk who have crowd-funded this release, we are so, so pleased to go all out on this one with a gatefold vinyl release and give the man, and the music, the respect that it deserves. He's John the Rat. His legacy lives on, an' that. Comes on brown colored vinyl in a double gatefold sleeve.
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