Patrick Lew's Band - In Her Garden

Hear The Track Here

Being an internet musician demands certain things from you; time obviously and (hopefully) some modicum of talent, and a strong sense of commitment to what you are doing. Oh, and a skin as thick as a rhino's for all the brickbats and rotten fruit thrown at you from the online peanut gallery. Early on, I learned that you need to take opinions in one of two ways, constructive in which case you might do something about it or destructive, in which case best thing to do is ignore it. A lesson, I suspect, that is not lost on Patrick Lew, a self-avowed musical anarchist.

Angst-ridden and anti-establishment are a couple of things Patrick says to describe himself and I'd say that was accurate and there is nothing whatsoever wrong with kicking against the traces, it's one of the finer traditions of rock and roll after all. Just because it doesn't appeal to me, obviously Patrick has found favour in some quarters and I say yay for him. As you know I am very partial to experimental music so wouldn't Patrick's blend of Punk Rock and Grunge do the same trick to me? Not so far, I have to say. Mind you, In Her Garden makes some large strides musically, for a start the drums and guitar almost work together and that's definitely a first for this musician who clearly couldn't give a toss what the rest of us think.

All of the usual suspects are present, highly dodgy lead playing that seems to live on a different planet to the rest of the track, and then there's the vocal. Yes, (gulp) it's a song. Written, as Patrick informs us, for an online female friend, and looking just at the words seems innocuous enough. Put the words to the music and vocals and that is where things get real hairy. Patrick knows full well that he's not a singer and if there is ever a illustration of that, it's right here but again that's not the only glaring problem. I've found that the only real way to deal with Patrick's is to dump all my normal rules, absolutely no point in talking about production or arrangement because Patrick doesn't do those. Still that backing track shows where this may (I stress that may) get better.

Beware, chaos beckons...