The Lykes of Yew: "Mr. Wednesday"

So you all know Mr. Wednesday: he came number two in a list of Top Ten Things Which Catch You Out (with number one being glugging back hot coffee which on swallowing proves to be cold). Wednesday won his prize based on the momentary horror you experience when you think there’s only one day left to go before the weekend, but then suddenly come to and realize today’s not Thursday—it’s Wednesday. Two more days to go! The joke’s on you, Mr Wednesday. Now put down that coffee and get the fuck back to work.

What the Top Ten Things Which Catch You Out didn’t know is that if you swing off that momentary horror long enough, it can draw you into the fast lane of the Road to Reinvention, where the old-fangled working week is a good four or five police chases behind you. Hence why this A-side from previously wyrd/folk meddlers Lykes of Yew ramps up like old-school Steppenwolf, rumbling along on a three-minute chopper like Dennis Hopper on flexi-time. Dave Jonathan Jones’ benzo drawl paints a picture of a die-hard who once was a travel agent, now decked out in fine stolen duds that help add sex to his dialogue: “As he tips the brim broad of a deep blue fedora / And his words speak of travel to places inside and outside / He moves his hand as he speaks and it trails an aura / And his voice spreads in ripples of colour, so deep and so wide…” The fuel tank of pharmaceuticals is definitely kicking in now, Benicio and Johnny D hot on its tail. It’s this psychoactive element that helps Terry Davey’s guitar solos whipsnap like angry Frusciante, and mentally marries “Mr Wednesday” to a biker clone of the Mock The Week jingle. Which, ironically enough, is on Thursdays.