Resurrection Men

The local band including singer-guitarist Brendan Casey who have spent years achieving a perfect balance, though reluctantly totalitarianism has been lost somewhere along the way...

It’s almost as though Resurrection Men float on the dirtiest side of the river Styx- or at least of Coventry canal. They’re the city’s filthiest rock band who, with one EP under their belts released by the band themselves earlier this year, have much more to prove.

It all started about seven or eight years ago when musician Brendan Casey, and ‘Brother’ Parge formed a band called Tawt. This outfit ran for about three years but was all becoming a bit too much of a democracy (it seems that a fascist regime is a far better system for running a band), and so Brendan and Parge set out to start something new.

“Resurrection Men” was a name devised by the parent of an ex-girlfriend; a title which comes from a book by Ian Rankin. But the band, it seems, has little connection with the literature and instead just liked the idea behind the name. “I thought it sounded like a Christian band at first. But I’ve got over that” voices Brendan.

So then with a variety of ‘bitches’ all pinched from other bands- Brendan also being the first drummer in the Sequins, and now bassist in photographer Steve Gullick’s brainchild Tenebrous Liar- the line-up was set to thump and grind. Andy Whitehead, the band’s third guitarist, was playing mainly with local musician Wes Finch in the Dirty Band; as well as working with Tin Angel artist Devon Sproule prior to Resurrection Men- and now he gets on with all three. Then drummer Peej Treehorn is of the Treehorns and bassist ‘Majik’ Alex Miles also plays in Invitation to Love- an alternative, slightly psychedelic congregation which also features: Brendan Casey. Keeping up with the cov-cest?

Much to the Casey-Parge dictatorship’s outrage; Resurrection Men turned into yet another democracy, and they were forced to accept ideas from other members of the band which developed a somewhat avant-garde style. “Alex is young so he’s got lots of ambition. Whereas I’m a bit jaded now, a bit tired” admits Brendan.

With the settled and current line-up, the band’s sound is most noticeably akin to a fusion of Beefheart, the Meat Puppets and The Damned- but there are many many more influences coming into play the more you listen, and the longer you listen. A song called ‘Still Remains’ is glaringly Nirvana-esque, but it is ‘Hole in the Road’ and ‘Fits’ which strike out most prominently, and these two tracks admittedly touch upon the band’s identity.

Currently you can catch them almost on a weekly basis playing in and around Coventry, using the city as a sort of training ground until they release their next CD toward the end of the year. But despite feeling fairly content with sticking around to build up a local following at the moment; Brendan believes that “bands can get a bit stuck in their comfort zone”, and also that “it would do a lot of Coventry bands good by playing out more”. The Resurrection Men are taking their time to branch out in reach for their potential, and to develop their structure into something of a more diverse nature. It is Brendan’s not-so-distant dream that “after a little while longer it would be nice to challenge the people we play to a bit. Once we’ve got people that come and see us, then we can start pissing them off” – the fascist undertones remain practically undeniable...

But seriously, Brendan and the other Men love the tightness of the Coventry music scene and feel that it’s a sad state of affairs that the London media paint a negative picture of it. It’s all ‘destitute working class’ and ‘lines at the job centre’ since The Enemy broke out and told them that’s how it is here in Coventry; and Brendan personally resents the fact that the city is often labelled as “everyone being so poor they can’t afford to do anything. And everyone loves Oasis”.

Resurrection Men however, land on the other side of the horizon to Oasis. You can instead imagine a troop of marching zombies in the desert, rising out of the Wild West like alternative gypsies- riffing and licking blues-rock in the dirt. It’s far closer to the ideal.