Scottish art punkers He's Dead Jim named themselves after a line that got uttered by Star Trek character Dr. Leonard H. McCoy quite a few times. While that TV show was set in the future, their music is a throwback to 60s garage rock, seasoned with power pop musings and synths from the heyday of New Wave. The band's new album These Men, These Monsters is a blend of fuzzy lo-fi and Technicolor flourishes.
They dare to dream big on a shoestring budget, painting a picture of a world that is moving forward, but also being aware that there is plenty of shit going on that is likely to get in the way - Anything Can Happen Day and Human Zoo sum up their outlook on life nicely. Heroes and villains are forever locked in a tug of war, but with this album playing at top volume things are half bad. O, and they throw in a smashing cover of 10CC's Art For Art's Sake, which may serve a stepping stone for a long overdue reappraisal of that band's adventurous output.
