I have heard other bands that have gone in the same direction as Manson Family Picnic, the music is definitely harkening back to that rootsy simple feel. Where the Manson Family kicks the piss out of the other bands is that they actually manage to capture the attitude that came with the Carter Family or Woody Guthrie...dudes can jam out and drop a line about 'peeing with my pants down'. That is awesome.

The first track on Manson Family Picnic’s self titled eponymous EP is a joyful little singalong entitled ‘The Mistakes’. "Do you ever feel like you’re crazy? I do. Do you ever feel like someone’s watching you?”, ask the opening lines. It seems to be about lying back and staring out over the ocean while casually discussing craziness, mortality and paranoia. It’s an infectious number that drifts along to the gentle strumming of a charango and it conjures up images of Charlie and Squeaky and Co sitting peacefully and singing around a campfire on a beach after serving their time and coming to terms with their murderous acts and mortal mistakes. An angelic female voice suggests a young Joni Mitchell could easily be sitting among them too. None of this is true of course but it’s good when the very first song on an album can stir up such imagery and send you off. When track two kicks in, all chilled-out-ness is broken in an instant with a shitkicking hillbilly stompalong flaunting some frenzied violin playing and a few unexpected tempo changes which drag its Deliverance ass away from the swamp before there's even a whiff of staleness. Unexpectedness and an element of surprise characterize this seven-tracker all the way through and make it a real fresh riot of aural recreational activity. The exit song on the EP, ‘Plastic Coated World’ would fit nicely and dissolve, like an acid tab under the tongue, between the track listing of Primal Scream’s psychedelic country masterwork Riot City Blues, and that’s saying something. The unique five-piece make use of all the usual redneck inventory of instruments but also play an array of lesser known acoustic and even toy instruments (trippy, man) to get where they want to go and the result is a cocktail of folk, pop, psychedelics and jazz with a dash of punk. There's more than a little madness involved here too of course, their moniker tells you that from the get go, but the band have a solid grip on a rootsy reality all of their own and it feels good to trip with them for a while. Take a hit of this stuff, you won’t regret it. www.circlemagazine.co.uk