I remember the shock I felt when I found out that Del Amitri were neither an American band nor an Italian fruit company founded in 1884. Just so that you’re not always the last to know, they are in fact a band from Glasgow. Similarly, the band Train don’t write songs in tribute to the amazing feat of engineering that is the steam engine, though it would be nice if they did.
What is the point of all this? Well, I knew before listening to ‘Spit It Out’ by Truck that they’re based in Cheltenham, yet the first few seconds of their new single had me in doubt. If you had told me they had spent the past ten years fermenting their own whiskey in West Virginia before giving this music malarkey a shot, I would have believed you. After a “1, 2, 3 – whoo!”, stadium-sized chords take their sweet time before the arrival of the lyrics “I wanna / say it out loud / who I am…” The next lyrics are not “the lead singer of a joyous band that combines the best parts of 90s alt rock (Hootie & the Blowfish, The Rembrandts) with a big dash of Worcestershire’s Dodgy” but they could have been.
In ‘Spit It Out’, Truck impart the wisdom that “confidence takes time / you’ll be alright / so why don’t you get it / in the sunshine while you can”. I suggest you see Truck either outdoors or indoors while you can. They’ll be playing a homecoming gig at the Frog and Fiddle on 30th January, supporting PET NEEDS with Ben Brown and Becca Kate. Get there by hook or by truck if you need to.
‘Spit It Out’ is out now on Apple Music, iTunes and Deezer.
By: Neil Laurenson