Thee Sgt. Major III’s first full-length, The Idea Factory, contains the wit, optimism and feisty schoolboy angst that Kurt Bloch articulated in his songwriting for seminal punk band The Fastbacks and the sparky guitar chug that beloved The Fastbacks to so many. Expert musicianship and high-cool grace are tempered by scrappy garage punk leanings, jazz longings, and a winking kind of macabre, not at all serious, but seriously good.

Each of the songs on The Idea Factory are a sort of controlled explosion, the recipe for which is this: take a well-built, 1960’s pop music machine and stuff it with The Who and some Ramones style punk rock. Blow it to bits. Start again.

Over a twenty year period, The Fastbacks made bright, tight, witty and explosive music that was not quite punk, not quite pop, and totally distinct. Now Bloch is back in the saddle with Thee Sgt. Major III, and their sound is more than accurately described by their label as ‘vaudeville punk’.

Visit their MySpace here. Buy the album from Spark And Shine Records here.

Download Thee Sgt. Major III – Information Seminar mp3 (from The Idea Factory)