I’m not sure if I’m reading too much into the latest video from Barking Poets, but the imagery of the band turning into chimeric dog-headed punk rockers, perhaps old dogs who can’t be taught new tricks, is a perfect metaphor for a song about stubbornness and defiance.
However, if this is the connection they are aiming for, they are doing themselves a disservice. Sure, their music is based on fairly familiar, sassy, scuzzy, punk-infused garage rock, but I would make two points.
Firstly, they embrace these established sounds with a forward-thinking freshness that sees them moving them on rather than merely nostalgically nodding to the sounds of the past. Secondly, if their sound is familiar, it is because it is a sound that found its perfect form many moons ago, and as they say, if it ain’t broke…
Barking Poets ain’t broke…ahh, there’s a third meaning to be found. Why keep operating as a grassroots band for little reward? Well, because, like any musicians worth their salt, they have little choice, you just gotta do it, and making music is its own reward. Another adage for you…prophets are not recognised in their own country…but it’s not all about profits, is it? (That joke works much better when spoken out loud.)
Either way, it’s a great song —a defiant, rebellious, yet celebratory one, made by a band that’s happy with what it’s all about. Clever and convoluted arguments aside, the fact that by the second time the chorus comes around, you will be punching the air and dancing around like a loon is all the justification any song needs. Dontcha think?
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