A record I missed out on in the mad rush of the last few weeks. Columbus, Ohio's Connections have been around for almost fifteen years now years now and exist in a time honoured American tradition.
It seems that rootless young men, in the days of the Old West would hang around on street corners, eventually tool up and terrorise their neighbourhoods. Now it seems they buy guitars and form bands and decide to do this' til the end of their natural, or at least useful years.
So Collectives exist at the end of a long and notable line. Feelies, Replacements, Guided by Voices, Pavement, Black Lips, Districts. Add your own gang. Latest album Cool Change is tough and ragged and altogether lacking in polish and all the better for that.
There's something quite touching about the way this record pitches its tent and stakes its place within this grand tradition. Something that has been going on since Punk and actually before that, to The Sonics, the Nuggets bands and The Stooges and before that even to The James Gang, Butch Cassidy and Billy the Kid. Cool Change is a record entirely lacking in pretension but with a genuine and not inappropriate sense of quiet pride.
Love this sound 👏
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