Guy Lochhead, 05/02/13
A truck driver from New Jersey who released an album of often-melancholy driving rock music in 1976. All the tracks were recorded in one take, lending the album an off-kilter sound that, coupled with its bleak atmosphere, has made it a cult favourite among outsider music fans. Higney re-released the album in 2009, and followed it with two collections of new songs in 2009 and 2011. Of course I love this – subverting something so whitebread – but it’s actually a pretty depressing record for what it represents; a man wanting a way out of his blue collar working life through the dreams of individual success encouraged by capitalist mass media, failing because his sound doesn’t fit. Unfortunately, the lyrics are also pretty creepy.