Logo
DiS Needs You: Save our site »
  • Logo_home2
  • Records
  • In Depth
  • In Photos
  • Blog
  • Podcast
  • Search
  • Community
  • Records
  • In Depth
  • Blog
  • Community

THIS SITE HAS BEEN ARCHIVED AND CLOSED.

Please join the conversation over on our new forums »

If you really want to read this, try using The Internet Archive.

Jim Bob

Goodnight Jimbob: On The Road With Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine

Label: Release Date: 23/07/2004

tjarvis by Toby Jarvis July 23rd, 2004

Jim Bob's first book is - inevitably - an autobiography focusing on his adventure as half of incendiary south London punk-pop duo Carter USM. They were frantic duelling guitarists, accompanied by drum-machine, loudly undermining their intelligent politicised songs with a hearty appetite for destruction and naughtiness. Carter polarised opinion at the time and distance has only increased that split. So they're either remembered fondly as an essential part of early 90s growing up and discovering 'real' music, or they're a joke. Goodnight Jim Bob could go some way to reconciling the two views. Laugh-out-loud bitesize chunks of deranged pop excess mix freely with embarrassed nostalgia. In one fell swoop, Jim proves both his ability and underlying decency - hopefully re-opening doors and giving his low key solo career a decent kick up the arse.

Because there's a lot of - perhaps too much - humility here. It was one big accident, a pile of crazy gigs and a sense of fun giving way to fat record deals - seemingly without game-plan or cynicism. Here is a fine account of that odd relationship between corporate industrial intention and entertainer fecklessness. Hindsight proves all too clear.

Jim's cohort Les 'Fruitbat' Carter is a mighty character to work with. He jumps off the page, skittering from Neil Cassidy to Dennis The Menace. This book has poo in. Always being sick or planning a prank, an addled Fruitbat's key set piece (and a moment of history) is the Sacking of Schofield, when he drunkenly rugby-tackles the smug TV presenter to the ground live at the Smash Hits Poll Winners' Party. It's beautifully told: enough extra embellishment from backstage to freshen up a familiar legend. But he maintains this average throughout, from darkest corners of Europe to the Hull Adelphi.

With excellent prose and sophisticated layering, Jim Bob has written a better book than one would reasonably expect, though it should've been obvious from a decade of bittersweet lyrics. There must be serious pressure to write more. It will be fascinating to see - now he's used up his core subject - whether he puts fingers to PC again.

Less salubrious critics still run scared from praising Jim Bob or Fruitbat's solo efforts, because of the dreaded 'uncool' of Carter. A songwriter who once scored an ultra-rare 10/10 in NME is overlooked by pissy free mags like Logo or that Barfly one (forgot the name) because he's not 19 and playing thicker-than-thou punker garage. But he still commands a crowd and writes a blinding chorus. And if this hilarious account does anything, it should remind people that actually, during the grunge years, we did ok. A finely printed calling card for the good life on the road.

  • 8
    Toby Jarvis's Score
Log-in to rate this record out of 10
Share on
   
Love DiS? Become a Patron of the site here »


LATEST


  • Drowned in Sound is back!


  • Drowned in Sound's 21 Favourite Albums of the Year: 2020


  • Drowned in Sound to return as a weekly newsletter


  • Lykke Li's Sadness Is A Blessing


  • Glastonbury 2019 preview playlist + ten alternative must sees


  • A Different Kind Of Weird: dEUS on The Ideal Crash



Left-arrow

The Boyfriends at Metro, London, South East England, Thu 15 Jul

Mobback
8487

Hell Is For Heroes

Transmit Disrupt

Mobforward
Right-arrow


LATEST

    news


    Drowned in Sound is back!

  • 106143
  • news


    Drowned in Sound's 21 Favourite Albums of the Y...

  • 106141

    news


    Drowned in Sound to return as a weekly newsletter

  • 106139
  • Playlist


    Lykke Li's Sadness Is A Blessing

  • 106138

    Festival Preview


    Glastonbury 2019 preview playlist + ten alterna...

  • 106137
  • Interview


    A Different Kind Of Weird: dEUS on The Ideal Crash

  • 106136

    Festival Review


    Way Out East: DiS Does Sharpe Festival 2019

  • 106135
  • Festival Review


    25 years of SPOT Festival: DiS Picks Its Best 11

  • 106134
MORE


    Interview


    Interview: Bjork talks piracy, punk, Lady Gaga ...

  • 79700
  • review


    Lana Del Rey - Ultraviolence

  • 95999

    Interview


    With Nile and I: DiS meets Nile Rodgers

  • 98023
  • review


    Biffy Clyro - Only Revolutions

  • 55003

    news


    The DiS Community's... 101 Favourite Albums

  • 85886
  • feature


    Panic Prevention: At the drink with Jamie T

  • 14183

    Staff-generated


    Reviewed: Shut Up And Play the Hits a documenta...

  • 83336
  • feature


    New Emo Goth Danger? My Chemical Romance confro...

  • 89578
MORE

Drowned in Sound
  • DROWNED IN SOUND
  • HOME
  • SITE MAP
  • NEWS
  • IN DEPTH
  • IN PHOTOS
  • RECORDS
  • RECOMMENDED RECORDS
  • ALBUMS OF THE YEAR
  • FESTIVAL COVERAGE
  • COMMUNITY
  • MUSIC FORUM
  • SOCIAL BOARD
  • REPORT ERRORS
  • CONTACT US
  • JOIN OUR MAILING LIST
  • FOLLOW DiS
  • GOOGLE+
  • FACEBOOK
  • TWITTER
  • SHUFFLER
  • TUMBLR
  • YOUTUBE
  • RSS FEED
  • RSS EMAIL SUBSCRIBE
  • MISC
  • TERM OF USE
  • PRIVACY
  • ADVERTISING
  • OUR WIKIPEDIA
© 2000-2023 DROWNED IN SOUND