Novella: "Oh Brian"

Anyone who’s seen the 2005 film Stoned will come away knowing the precise dimensions of Leo Gregory’s cock and the fact that Brian Jones, Rolling Stones founding member, was drowned by a builder who he made do press-ups. It’s a story that teaches us many things, namely don’t indulge in poolside horseplay with a man you’ve kept sweating for three months. But was Jones still alive when the police pulled his body out of the water? It’s a conspiracy theory that’s rattled many, with London noise trio Novella being the latest. Having spent most of last year listening to the Brian Jonestown Massacre and boning up on other famous cover-ups, Suki Sou, Sophy Hollington, and Hollie Warren have recorded “Oh Brian” in tribute to their idol—and in tribute to the Bilderberg Group, and the 1978 Guyana suicides. Written down on paper it sounds like a Chuck Palahniuk paperback. On tape, it’s rhythm guitar heaven.

Built from the kind of swaggering Fenders Link Wray might once have been proud of, “Oh Brian” is essentially a shoegaze track with its dipped head lassoed by drums. The primal scratch of three guitars gives the track the necessary drunk/dream production, but the girls’ harmonies add a sheen of pop, and glide over their riffs like toboggans. Although impossible to gauge how many are singing when they hum “I’m convinced / What’s the use / It’s not easy when you’re born to lose,” the guitar jams come across more passionate than Warpaint but less flaky than touchstones MBV. Novella strut comfortably somewhere in the middle, like the airport fiction of their namesake. Hopefully they won’t be as disposable, and hopefully they know the line “I can’t die / Die today” doesn’t apply when you take a builder skinny-dipping.