Bring It On

Performer: Gomez
Engineer: Ken Nelson
Producer: Gomez
Distributor: EMI Music Distribution

Notes: Gomez: Ian Ball, Paul Blackburn, Tom Gray, Ben Ottewell, Olly Peacock. Additional personnel: Steve Fellows (guitar); Ian Bracken (cello); Susie Wright (saxophone); Mat Quinton (tuba). Personnel: Stephen Fellows (guitar); Ian Bracken (cello); Susie Wright (saxophone). Recording information: Merseyside; Southport, England. The 2008 10th-anniversary edition of BRING IT ON includes a bonus disc loaded with Gomez radio sessions and rarities. The lauded British alt-rock band is featured on two BBC recording dates performing both familiar tracks (the sunny "Here Comes the Breeze") and non-album numbers (a cover of the Temptations' "The Way You Do the Things You Do"). In simple terms, Gomez' debut is the result of a long studio woodshedding session by five Scottish lads sick to death of Britpop. So rather than nick riffs from the whole history of English rock, as many of their UK contemporaries had been doing throughout the '90s, Gomez looked to America for inspiration. Their reverence for the roots-influenced sounds of California rock circa 1971 is only exceeded by their admiration of Beck's ability to update folk-rock records by cutting and pasting modern textures onto them. And all of BRING IT ON swings between these musical ideas. Thus, while singer Ben Ottewell does a good Rod Stewart (another Scot who looked to American roots music for his muse), and acoustic guitars lead standard bar band instrumentation through the faux blues-rock grooves of mid tempo raves like "78 Stone Wobble" and "Get Myself Arrested," sampled vinyl scratches and dubbed out vocals date the songs as late-'90s creations (ain't no retro here). Seamlessly combining these philosophies during their finest moments, Gomez play like Primal Scream's laid-back and understated younger siblings--heads full of the same old American jive, but powered by booze and pot smoke rather than Ecstasy.

Spin (9/98, pp.191-192) - 8 out of 10 - "...Gomez...has...steeped itself in retro-Americana: the Band, Little Feat, the Grateful Dead, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Captain Beefheart....Ultimately, BRING IT ON works, because, to hell with quote marks, it's a damn beautiful record." Entertainment Weekly (9/11/98, p.132) - "...While their retro pastiche of swampy guitar, Vedderesque vocals, and goofy lyrics is initally bewildering, it slowly grows into sonic shapes that are as dense and oddly beautiful as wild kudzu." - Rating: B+ Q (12/99, p.100) - Included in Q Magazine's "90 Best Albums Of The 1990s." Mojo (Publisher) (p.119) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "Adding '90s electronica swirls and echoes, they ended up in a rackety groove combining good times and primal terror, sweetness and severe damage." NME (Magazine) (3/23/02, p.36) - 9 out of 10 - "...To say that Gomez are fake is to say the same about the fledgling Stones banging around the Richmond Tavern high on Bo Diddley. It's fantasy, man. Chill out..."

This five-piece combo led by Ben Ottewel sure doesn't come across as a British band. Moreover, Gomez's blues-based music sounds quintessentially American, albeit filtered through a modern, beat-oriented prism. When their 1998 debut album, BRING IT ON, earned Gomez a coveted prize for best British album of the year, it served as a strong affirmation of the band's prodigious talents.

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