A Witness. Double Peel Sessions.

A Witness were a gloriously deranged group with satirical, dada-esque lyrics, sneering, elbow-to-the-ribs vocals, stabbing, pulverizing guitar riffs, and a thick, chunky, beefheartian sound, as if they were pulling their rhythms out from underneath piles of loose rubble. Sort of Half Man, Half Biscuit, Half Deerhoof, Part Bogshed. They hail from the forgotten, darker, non-twee side of the C-86 cassette. Sadly, they broke up rather early on in their career after the death of founding guitarist Rick Aitken. Keith Curtis went on to join the equally commercially unfriendly Membranes, Alan Brown toured with The Great Leap Forward, and Vince Hunt created the soundscape project Pure Sound before banding together with Alan as Marshall Smith. They keep track of their collective goings on at Euphonium Records (linked below).

The Peel Sessions give a pretty good overview of their versatile sound. Everything from jagged, nuggets-style punk to nearly sing-along, bizarro-pop (the amazing, godlike I Love You Mr. Disposable Razors). There's practically no telling where they could have gone. In a just world, whispering their name would grant you entry into the same underworld of teenage cool to which Joy Division or Sonic Youth serve as magic keys. This is vibrant, indispensable music.

Peel

A Witness official site