Let's Wrestle's Track By Track Guide To “”In The Court Of Wrestling Let's””

• 4th Nov 2010

Raucous young London trio Let’s Wrestle have reissued their debut album ‘In The Court of Wrestling Let’s’ this week through Full Time Hobby.

Ahead of last night's one-off show at The Lexington [Wed 3rd November], we asked witty frontman Wesley Patrick Gonzales to compile a track by track guide to the album, which also includes a second disc full of their first hard to find single and EP releases. See below for Wesley's blow by blow account of the entire record.

Shot through with witty, wonkily related tales of teenage ennui, thwarted romance and wise-beyond-their-years world weariness, Let’s Wrestle traffic in the kind of rambunctious, infectious, gloriously untethered indie rock which calls to mind slacker forefathers such as Pavement, Dinosaur Jr, Built to Spill and even the Buzzcocks and Buddy Holly, sending an instant shot of addictive melody straight into your serotonin while also lodging in your cerebral cortex with Wesley's pithy way with a lyric. Miss tonight's show at your peril – the next time you see them they’ll have a killer second album neatly socked away under their collective sleeves.

Over to Wesley on ‘In The Court of Wrestling Let’s’:

Disc One
1) 'My Arms Don't Bend That Way'.
This song was written about Amy Winehouse. I read on a forum that people were predicting when she would die. I felt bad so wrote this. The title came from a Japanese film me and my buddy Koichi watched. These were the subtitles when we paused it.

2) 'I'm In Love With Destruction'
This song is probably about a girl. I don't know which girl. I've got an idea it sounds like I wrote in a dreaded “relationship”. I've not had many of these, from the lyrics it doesn't sound like fun.

3) 'Tanks'
This too was about a relationship. It was a lame one I can tell you but I am really proud of this song so I suppose some good can come from kissing and holding hands.

4) 'My Eyes Are Bleeding (interlude)'
This the first of 3 interludes I wanted the record to be like Sparklehorse's “Vivadixiesubmarineplot” LP but the interludes were as close as we got. Mikes the American, I'm the one with the smokers cough.

5) 'My Schedule'
This is my favourite song on the record. We worked it out the day before we went into the studio. I wrote it after we came back from a tour and I had a letter from the library about some overdue items. I was pretty cut up about it.

6) 'We Are The Men You'll Grow To Love Soon'
This was written in the morning before I phoned the job centre to sign on. I really thought signing on would be fun and that I would be able to take girls out on dates. Oh sweet naivety!

7) ' In Dreams'
I was listening to a lot of Roy Orbison at time and I thought a homage was necessary. I was having a re-occuring dream about a girl with no face. So this came out.

8) 'Atlantis (interlude)'
Another interlude this was just me and Mike mucking about.

9) 'Song For Old People'
My Mum said once that you have to be a really talented songwriter to write a song about old people. So I thought I would give it a go. When my mother heard it she thought it was harsh on O.A.P.s

10) 'I Won't Lie To You'
The hit. I remember feeling like I really achieved something after writing this but its no fun after hearing it played at indie discos.

11) 'Diana's Hair'
I really like this one the drums remind of “Instant Karma”. It's about Mike's [from Let's Wrestle] hair, his bassline on this is fantastic.

12) 'I'm In A Fighting Mode'
I was embarrassed about this song for a while. I thought is was too ballady but it grew on me. I think the guitar solo sounds like Slash, of course I am deluded but it's quite good. I can't disclose what this songs about until I quit the music business. I'll put it on my suicide note, I promise.

13) 'Insects'
This is about night terrors I had as a kid coupled with I had an infestation of ladybirds in my room when I wrote it.

14) 'It's Not Going To Happen'
I remember coming up with the title as I was listening to a lot of stuff on Flying Nun Records and both Tall Dwarfs and the Clean had songs with similar titles. That is all I remember about this one.

15) 'Waltz (interlude)'
Another interlude, not much to say about it.

16) 'In The Court Of The Wrestling Let's'
I didn't realise until after the original release that this is very similar to a Sebadoh song called “Crystal Gypsy”. On our travels we managed to meet both Lou and Jason from Sebadoh. When I met Jason who wrote it after I made a gushing speech about how “III” changed my life I apologised about ripping this off his response was “don't fuckin' worry about it, I stole that off a MTV commercial, wanna toke?”

Disc Two
1) 'Song For Abba Tribute Record'
Sounds quite different to how we sound now. This was recorded when we were 15, I think just 16. It was before I knew how to use a distortion pedal. I think I was either listening to a lot of Fall records or hadn't worked out how to sing it yet. It ends in an odd way because we hadn't worked out an ending.

2) 'Quazar Blues'
This was about all the people I knew at school and unfortunately kind of about me. I have sadly sniffed glue and pissed on cars. Youth is a very dangerous thing if you live in the suburbs and don't fit in.

3) 'I Wish I Was In Husker Du'
This was the first Let's Wrestle song. I wrote it when me and Darkus used to go watch Trencher and Part Chimp and smoke weed in club toilets. It was my real introduction to the London toilet circuit. It's not changed much.

4) 'I Won't Lie To You' (ep version)
This is my favourite version of the two. It's so out of tune. Its the first song from our ep “In Loving Memory Of….” and this song gained some fans who were interested in more than just our song “Let's Wrestle”.

5) 'I'm OK You're OK'
This song was a good prediction of how I'd feel in a few years time and at that moment I was OK, not that I'm not now but things can be tough being in a pop combo.

6) 'Song For A Man With Pica Syndrome'
This is about Pica Syndrome which consists of the sufferer eating things that they shouldn't i.e. crayons, wood and bedsheets. There was a fantastic article on it in the paper which I cut out and still have.

7) 'Insects' (ep version)
I like the album version more, there is a great organ ending Mike did, which I like.

8) 'Music Is My Girlfriend'
I don't like this song much nowadays. Its a pretty basic song I find the lyrics a cringeworthy. We enjoyed playing around with a wasp synthesizer on this but its pretty low in the mix.

9) 'Joe Reddington, You'll Be The Death Of Me'
Joe Reddington was a friend from school. He was really into reggae and dressed like a skinhead. We used to take him around the country as a “roadie” but that consisted of him drinking our beers mainly. He wasn't a big lifter, he didn't want to break a sweat in his Ben Sherman shirt. He is training to be a fireman now.

10) 'I'm In Fighting Mode' (single version)
As I've already talked about the song I'll talk about the video which is my favourite video. I have two young siblings and me and MIke thought of this idea with ghost children. We bought loads of sheets and got my brother and sister to ask their friends at school. When we got there we realised we had loads of kids wearing sheets and Mike's brother dressed as a clown. We thought it seemed quite John Wayne Gacy but nobody noticed. It was a fun day on Hampstead Heath.

11) 'Let's Wrestle'
I fucking hated this song when this single was recorded. We seemed to gain a lot of jocky beefcake fans because of it and it was just a joke that got out of hand. We did the single so the asbo fans could buy it and leave us alone.

12) 'Getting Rest'
Was written after the album came out. It's about our first US tour and seeing some real poverty in Baltimore and New Orleans. It was really tragic and sometimes scary. I love America but it can be incredibly overwhelming at times. This song is gonna be on the 2nd record. It's one of my favourite things I've done.

13) 'When I Was In Hospital'
Another post “In The Court…” song. It's about terminal illness or just thinking about it or whatever. It's got a good guitar.