A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Mint 400 - Gas (4 October 1992)

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I used to have terrible trouble differentiating between Mint 400, Mint Royale, Galaxie 500 and Hillman Minx, so I’m delighted that this Peel show allowed me an opportunity to get some clarity over which band were which.

Mint 400 were second in order after Galaxie 500 and Gas was their first single.  Peel noted that there was quite a bit of buzz around Mint 400, but he wanted to see what else they came up with before deciding whether to add his voice to the hubbub.  For myself, I think there’s plenty to like here despite the slightly strained vocals of Paul Stroud.  I love how they’ve woven a skipping song melody inside these thundering guitars and while the lyrics are carbon dated by their early 90s general twentysomething ennui (“We’re all dead” etc) it also contains a sly dig at the environmental concerns of the time: “Green seas making them all mad/Gasoline to burn the bed”.  It’s also quite funny just how much this song tries to convince you that the characters in it are hard and dangerous, but they just sound like a bunch of delusionals whose idea of sticking it to the man would be to fill their car with leaded petrol.  It’s not an easy skill to pull off - sounding like likeable arseholes, but Mint 400 just about manage it here.

Alas, they didn’t manage it enough times for a lengthy career.  After releasing two more EPs in 1993, nothing more came out from Mint 400 until 1996 and an album called Intercomfort  which contained re-recordings of a number of earlier tracks, including Gas, which is where the version featured here comes from.  And after that, Mint 400 stood down and opened the floor up for Mint Royale and friends...

Video courtesy of Diego TafurAcosta
All lyrics are copyright of their authors.