The Comedy of Errors: Jacob’s Mouse - [Peel Session] (12 June 1992)

Jacob’s Mouse were formed when brothers Hugo and Jebb Boothby bonded with fellow pre-teen drummer, Sam Marsh over a love of heavy metal, “We were 11 at the time and it was quite a rare thing to find other people into heavy metal.” (Marsh).  By 16, the trio felt they had outgrown it, in part because of the music that they had heard while listening to the John Peel Show.  Nevertheless, when listening to this session - a repeat of their debut session, first broadcast the night after Oliver! had finished - I found myself noticing how much the tracks in this session owed to metal.  It’s most noticeable in the lyrics.  Four of the five tracks are made up of single, sparse verses which are repeated throughout with slight variations to reflect someone else’s point of view. They may be repetitive, but refrains like “Fish get caught and fish in a lie” in session opener, Oblong, will stay running around your head like an overactive puppy.
The paucity of lyrical variety may be down to the fact Sam Marsh is the vocalist and drummers have more than enough to cope with without having to recite reams of lyrics like a percussive Leonard Cohen.  However, it’s equally likely that the tracks the band recorded for the session were works in progress.  Oblong and the miniature Pink Floyd imbued Fridge were contemporary releases on their Ton Up EP.  Session closer, A Thin Sound (as it was called then) was held over till the following year’s I’m Scared LP.

The sound here takes the best elements of metal and holds its own against any American grunge group of the time.  The video is taken from the 12/6/92 show, but not every track gets namechecked on it. The full tracklisting for the session is:
1) Oblong (up to 3:50)
2) Fridge (up to 6:28)
3) Microflesh (up to 10:29.  The only track which doesn’t rely on a single repeated verse, but also the only one that I would have omitted had I been making a mix-tape.)
4) Homophobe (up to 14:19.  The verse for this track sounds like a lost David Bowie rocker from his 72-74 period. The verse is brief but as with Oblong, it jumps straight into your head and “With his feet and his hands on my hot chest/And he couldn’t take his eyes off of this” gets you immediately singing along.)
5) A Thin Sound (up to end and having stood toe to toe with the grunge bands, Jacob’s Mouse end up showing some new tricks to Red Hot Chili Peppers.)

Video courtesy of Vibracobra23 Ennui