Pugwash sings praises of musical heroes
Ever since he bought his first ELO album at age 8, Thomas Walsh has had a sense of what makes a great pop song.
“It’s all about melody, really. What you want is a song you can sing forever, like I can with everything the Kinks ever wrote,” said the leader of the Irish band Pugwash, ahead of the band’s stop at the Lizard Lounge on Tuesday night. “I’m sure there are people who go around singing Metallica songs, but maybe not so many.
“We’re a square peg in a round hole at home,” he said of the band’s presence in Ireland and the United Kingdom. “In America, people really come to pay attention to the music, not just for a good time. At home, it’s really about enforced angst — people like to suffer a little, and they like music that puts them to sleep or puts them in an early grave. And they remember events, like how this band just played to millions of people. But they don’t remember songs, and songs are what we’re about.”
It’s no wonder Pugwash is a cult hero in the U.S., especially among those who share Walsh’s musical taste. The band’s Lizard Lounge set is likely to include an impromptu cover or two — last year it was the Bee Gees’ “Massachusetts” — along with songs from Walsh’s extensive catalog.
Over time, the band has connected with its own musical heroes. The last Pugwash album, “Play This Intimately (As If Among Friends)” includes a cameo by ELO leader Jeff Lynne — making an in-joke reference to an old Move lyric, no less. Another track features a dream harmony trio of Walsh, XTC’s Andy Partridge and the Kinks’ Ray Davies.
“It’s been a constant ‘pinch me’ moment for us, since these are the same people whose records I was buying when I was young and had a few quid. I asked Andy Partridge if he wanted to sing on a track with Ray Davies, and he said, ‘Hell, yeah!’ I think that moment fulfilled a dream for him.”
Walsh and Partridge are actually longtime friends, and Pugwash had an album on Partridge’s Ape label.
“We’re kindred spirits because we’ve both got the brains of 12-yearolds. We both like to come up with funny band-name lists and sit around talking about ’60s pop.”
After the tour winds up, Walsh will settle down to write the next Pugwash album.
“The songs will definitely come out quickly. They could come from anywhere, like a tour party or from feeling disconnected. They are getting a little more personal lately. I save the sillier ones for the Duckworth Lewis Method (his side project with members of the Divine Comedy).
“Right now, I feel the songs building up, and they’re ready to come out. It’s the same feeling you get when you just ate a 3-week-old curry: You know that some of the moments are going to be special, and others maybe not so good.” Pugwash, with Andy Stone, at the Lizard Lounge, Cambridge, Tuesday. Tickets: $15; brownpapertickets. com.