I Ain't Been To Heaven, But I Been To Oklahoma

I was going to write a big, long, oldfashioned review of the Wagons show at the SoCo Cargo bar in St Kilda last night, but really, after a scorcher like today, who can be fucked. Suffice to say that the venue sucked about eleventy-thousand different kinds of ass and the Wagons were good. They were best, however, when it was just Henry solo, as it took some of the adult contemporary vibe away and just left guitar and voice. And when you're as awesome as Henry Wagons - himself another noise music graduate - that's gotta be a good thing. They're playing as a duo at the Labour in Vain on the 20th, which could be worth checking out.

At this point, however, I could well use the Wagons to illustrate a larger point about the novelty hip hop song. Look, I know it's easy to bust out a hip hop beat on the drums and talk for a little bit instead of singing, but really, way too many bands fall prey to this temptation. It's kinda funny, and a St Kilda crowd will always love it, but fuck, it breaks up the tone of the set and reduces all the rest of your songs to novelty as well. If your token rapper has skills, like Sy the Philanthropist obviously does, let them go hang out at Obese until someone offers them a record deal. Until then, keep your set all country, ok?