If you’re a regular listener of Massey University’s Radio Control 99.4fm, or have tuned in at all over the past month you’ve probably heard Pottsy shamelessly plug his band, Brooklyn State Hospital, and their Album Release Gig at the Celtic. If this is news to you, you’ve missed the gig but thankfully the album has been released. Add some sweat, beer and dance floor graunching and the CD feels just like the gig – minus the shirtless Pottsy.

The Doctor Will Record You Now is the product of two hundred bottles of beer, one thousand cigarettes, a cigar and some sausages. Replete with inside jokes and leaking Delta Blues as dirty as the Mississippi itself, Brooklyn State Hospital deliver music even your mum will dance to, as proven at the recent Celtic gig. It’s the music Bob Dylan would be making if he was still with us (what do you mean he’s not dead?).   The music is straight forward and easily digested, more visceral than cerebral. The singing is a mix of both, with much fun and time put into deciphering Black Willie’s metaphors and allusions. It’s going to a great listen once the weather warms up; it’s perfect for warm beer, bbqs and drunkenly singing along.

There was plenty of beer and drinking along at the Album Release Gig. A bit of dancing too. At first it was only mums, but into the second half of the set there were women, gorgeous women, everywhere. At one point the band refused to continue until the women stood back up and continued to dance, with the promise of Pottsy removing his singlet. The Celtic was packed that night. There were people all over the seats, the walls, the bar, the floor. Palmy’s regular celebrities were there; Kane Parsons, Brendon Hartley, Sam from Kiwis in Control with Pottsy and Sam, those attractive extras from the music video. There was also an overpowering aroma of spilt Guinness, drunk sweat and too much cologne; the kind of thing you’d expect from a place like this. A flourishing scene of sophistication, far removed from the meat market the concurrent Six60 gig promised, with more refined emotional sensibility than the Screamo gig at the Royal. Plus it was free, a fact not passed on to the homeless that watched on thru the windows of the pub.  If cognac was on the menu it would the perfect chaser to a Guinness and the appropriate form of social lubrication.    

Cognac would have been the perfect accompaniment to the inaugural screening of the ‘She’s a Ghost’ video that night. It’s one of the quieter tracks on the album, more finger-picked folk pop than banging blues. It’s a good place to sit down for a breather before you’re thrown back against the wall by ‘The Breakwater Blues’. Be sure to look up the video for ‘She’s a ghost’, which features a few familiar Palmy places and faces and reflects the subject matter of the song. It’s on their Youtube and Facebook.

For fans of the man of the ‘One Bourban, One Scotch, One Beer’, George Thorogood, listen intently to side A thru B. For fans of the guy that sung that song before Thorogood, John Lee Hooker, put on ‘My Love’s an Open Sewer’ and have an introspective moment. As the last track it gives you time to reflect on everything you’ve learnt over the last fifty minutes.   

Sadly missing from the album is the crowd favourite ‘Tuning Song’, which is an integral part of the live gig. With a song that’s never quite the same as the last, it’s difficult to put on a record and say, “this is the tuning song! It goes like this.” If anything, it’s another reason to go to a live show.  

The Doctor Will Record You Now has been in Winamp for a whole week, yet the album still raises more questions than 1987’s The Lost Boys. Why is William the only one without a nonchalant face? Why is Rob so eager for a digital examination by Dr Caldicott? Why is Pottsy the only one ever pictured in a hat? Is that bass player secretly the emo from the Fish? Would you like these guys being a part of making love to you? It’s got a few more consecutive listens yet, let’s see what other mysteries I can unravel.

• 1
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• 2
  Horror Story
• 3
  Fraser Ross
• 4
  Fur Patrol
• 5
  Michelle Rounds
• 6
  L.A.B.
• 7
  Devilskin
• 8
  Coridian
• 9
  The Boondocks
• 10
  Late to Chelsea

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• 1
  APT.
  ROSÉ And Bruno Mars
• 2
  DIE WITH A SMILE
  Lady Gaga And Bruno Mars
• 3
  BIRDS OF A FEATHER
  Billie Eilish
• 4
  TASTE
  Sabrina Carpenter
• 5
  I LOVE YOU, I'M SORRY
  Gracie Abrams
• 6
  ESPRESSO
  Sabrina Carpenter
• 7
  SAILOR SONG
  Gigi Perez
• 8
  LOSE CONTROL
  Teddy Swims
• 9
  A BAR SONG (TIPSY)
  Shaboozey
• 10
  GOOD LUCK, BABE!
  Chappell Roan

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