Videos

Needs Must – Thank You For Choosing

• 21st Oct 2010

Part protest song, part working class clarion call, “Thank You For Choosing”, is a brash politicized shard of garage punk rock, replete with thick fuzzy bass, raw chiming riff’s and gravely Weller-esque vocals. It builds from a quietly seething verse of sneered grievances – “The import rates are getting higher, All sold out to the biggest buyer, The fast food chains are getting fatter, Leaves our metabolism in a tatter” spits vocalist Patrick Minhard – into a genuinely euphoric chorus of firework guitars and drum spills that thumbs its nose at authority and resolves to go its own way.

“The spark for it came from a McDonalds drive-thru”, explains Patrick. There’s this sign that read ‘Thank you for choosing us’, and that got me thinking…”. It’s a piece of political songwriting that’s deft, not heavy handed, and demonstrates Needs Must’s debt to an older generation of politicized songwriters (The Jam, The Clash and Medways’s notorious moustachioed rock trooper Billy Childish).

The band formed back in the Summer of 2007, when Patrick Minhard (vocal & guitar) and long-term friend Brendan Esmonde (bassist) decided to stop talking about being in a band, and get it together. A few members came and went before the quartet was completed by James Gilder (guitar) and Sam Mitchell (drums).

The single was recorded at Ranscombe Studios, a 16-track analogue studio in Rochester where Brendan works as assistant engineer and is owned by former Medway Scene musician Jim Riley that’s frequented by musicians including Childish and former KLF man Jimmy Caulty.