Guys and Dolls: Rollerskate Skinny - Bow Hitch-Hiker (10 April 1993)

 

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24 hours earlier, John Peel played Potvan by The Werefrogs, a song which I described as evoking the sense of a stoned man driving at 5mph.  I was reminded of it while listening to Bow Hitch-Hiker by the Dublin band, Rollerskate Skinny, which had just been released on their Trophy EP and would also feature on their debut album, Shoulder Voices. 

Imagine if the toked driver of Potvan picked up a couple of hitchhikers, but they turned out to embody the spirit of the songs, Pacific Coast Highway by Sonic Youth and Cumulus by Pram. And I feel that way because with its multiple movements and styles, Bow Hitch-Hiker manages to convey the disturbing intensity of the former track and the unsettling oddness of the latter, all while mixing in their own brand of Celtic stoner rock. At times they sound like the disturbed older brother of The Thrills.

Wherever Rollerskate Skinny and their passengers are heading in this track, we’re left with a sense of people trying and failing to outrun their pasts. The swirl of sounds within this track, which run from the melodic to the abrasive suggest moments of psychological calm in constant battle with psychological turmoil. And what about lines like, It’s alright, all the girls are here now/All the girls are dead.  Just what has singer Ken Griffin been doing? Whatever it is, lines like It’s like a million years of shame on my back and in my ears/But it’s alright, all the girls are gone suggest that he’s been carrying a heavy burden around. As the various crunchy riffs fade out through the last minute and a half of the song, we’re left with a circulating seven note riff running around the inside of the brain, like a guilt which can never sit still.

The Jittery White Guy Music blog included Bow Hitch-Hiker among their favourite 1000 songs, and also talked about what a noisy live act Rollerskate Skinny were. Something which Radio 1 listeners got to experience when the band recorded a Peel Session at the end of May, which included a live version of Bow Hitch-Hiker.

Video courtesy of Austo77.

All lyrics are copyright of their authors.