Irregularis: The Great Hiatus

While his musical influences are rooted firmly in the 1960s (or earlier if you add in his taste for blues and rural folk), Billy Childish isnt a man who puts much stock in looking back. He writes new songs, forms new bands, and turns out new albums at a feverish pace, moving forward in ceaseless creativity. But when his friend and musical inspiration Don Craine of the Downliners Sect died in February 2022, Childish teamed up with his former bandmates from his 90s group Thee Headcoats and Craines Downliners bandmate Keith Evans to record a memorial EP. Childish, bassist Johnny Johnson, and drummer Bruce Brand enjoyed the experience enough that they decided to cut a reunion LP, and 2023s Irregularis (The Great Hiatus) boasts a sense of playfulness that sets it apart from much of Childishs 2010s work. Musically, this is Childish and company doing what hes always done, bold and dirty R&B-steeped garage rock with lots of howling guitar work, simple melodic structures, and stomp-down rhythms. On "Mr. H Headcoat," however, Childish pulls out the Snaggletooth voice that was a staple of vintage Headcoats sides, "7% Solution" tips its Deerstalker cap to his Arthur Conan Doyle obsession, "Headcoatitude" is a swingin high-energy blast, the female backing vocals on "The Leader of the Sect" recall the glee of the side project the Headcoatees, and "Oh Leader We Do Dig Thee" honors both Don Craine and another primal influence, Bo Diddley. Though theres never been any doubt that Billy Childish loves rock & roll, the frisson of three old friends reminding themselves of the joys of dirty rock & roll and having a bash with your mates is audible in these performances, and it makes a difference -- Irregularis (The Great Hiatus) is one of the most purely enjoyable albums Billy Childish has given us in quite some time, and shows this trio still has plenty of gas in the tank. ~ Mark Deming