The Go-Betweens: The Friends Of Rachel Worth ---Ink • Blot Magazine

The Go-Betweens: The Friends Of Rachel Worth

at a glance...

Hometown: Brisbane, Australia
First Recordings: 1977

Personnel:
Robert Forster -vocals, guitar, organ
Grant McLennan -vocals, guitar, bass
Adele Pickvance -bass, vocals
Janet Weiss -drums, vocals
Sam Coomes -keyboards
Featuring:
Carrie Brownstein -guitar
Corin Tucker -vocals
Brent Arnold -cello
Jen Chorowhas -violin

Related Artists:
G.W. McLennan, Robert Forster, Jack Frost, Sleater-Kinney, Quasi

Notes:
When Robert Forster and Grant McLennan founded The Go-Betweens in the socially and meteorologically oppressive environs of Brisbane, Australia in 1977, they were at odds with both the corrupt, macho prevailing culture and the heavy-rocking example of hometown punk heros The Saints. Their early material reflected their shared interest in foreign films, NY punk, Jonathan Richman, Bob Dylan, and The Monkees. By the time they moved to England in 1982, they had digested these influences into a sophisticated style that was as out of step with the glib '80s pop scene as they had been back home. The group broke up as the '80s drew to a close, exhausted after recording over a half dozen albums that were far more splendid than their sales let on. McLennan and Forster still tour as an acoustic duo, but do their best to leave the band's name off the bill. But after a world tour in 1999, they chose to repaired to Portland, Oregon to record a new record under their old name.

The Go-Betweens
The Friends Of Rachel Worth
Beggars Banquet, Released 2000

On "When She Sang About Angels," the song about Patti Smith that closes the first Go-Betweens album in nearly a dozen years, Robert Forster ponders the slack that one must sometimes cut one's heroes. If it's a hidden plea for similar indulgence, he needn't bother to ask -- this record brings no shame to The Go-Betweens' fine name.

He and Grant McLennan don't write with the same twisted wit that barbed songs like "The Clarke Sisters" and "Draining The Pool For You;" they've grown a bit too dignified for that, and acknowledge as much on the fond remembrance of youth "Surfing Magazines." But neither do they bother with the dubious want-a-hit production that sometimes marred their old records. Instead the duo went into a low-profile studio in Oregon with members of Quasi and Sleater-Kinney and crafted ten low-key but confident pop gems.

Forster's songs are deeply felt reminiscences of life in exile, while McLennan sticks to the love-gone wrong vignettes that have been his strong suit since "Bachelor Kisses." Both couch their words in incrementally catchy tunes framed by lilting guitars and driven by Janet Weiss and Adele Pickvance's graceful rhythms.

Welcome back, gentlemen, and don't feel like you need to leave in a hurry.

If you like The Go-Betweens, check out:
Robert Forster Warm Nights
G.W. McLennan Watershed
The Verlaines Bird Dog
The Go-Betweens Bellavista Terrace
The Go-Betweens Before Hollywood
The Go-Betweens Liberty Belle and The Black Diamond Express
The Go-Betweens 16 Lovers Lane

-- Bill Meyer

Ink Blot Home
about | archives | contact | links