Eight Legs/ The Electric Kool-Aid Cuckoo Nest

Eight Legs
The Electric Kool-Aid Cuckoo Nest
(Boot Leg)

You'd imagine that a band named after the features of an octopus, keen on dressing up in furry animal suits and partial to 60s counterculture literature would sound a bit... well, subversive.
Yet the musical style of Eight Legs' debut album is fairly standard; Kevin Rowland-esque vocals and a love for the established traditions of indie music lead the way, whether you're talking baggy grooves (opener 'I Understand'), punk-pop ('Stay Cool') or jangly melancholy ('Nothing Between The Lines').
The band certainly have a petrol pump plugged into the car and melodies packed in the boot, and on 'Best Of Me' showcase an engulfing match of the two: it's a song that feels chased by demons, and energised by them.
On the flipside, the occasional song does sound lethargic, and it's a look that doesn't suit them: 'I Don't Have The Time' is pretty but also pretty tired-sounding. The band are at their best when they challenge themselves to rip up the script: 'Cloak And Dagger' riffs off the Pulp Fiction theme then bursts into garage rock mayhem, while 'The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test' pulsates to an acrobatic groove as singer Sam Jolly reads passages from the cult Tom Wolfe novel. It's massively enjoyable.
The fact the band are releasing this on their own label is fantastic, but also possibly explains why no men in black suits were available to tell them they should edit it down from a good album to a great one.