While the pandemic lockdown has caused chaos in the music industry globally, a few bands have, coincidentally, timed things just right to fit things around it and one such in Guernsey are Coastal Fire Dept who are launching themselves out of quarantine with I Don’t Wanna Hold Your Hand, a new single following on from You Are Stuck.
Once again the fates have aligned to see them get some big names working on the track behind the scenes as, after being recorded at Apocalypse Studios by Mike Ferbrache in Guernsey, the track was mastered by Fabian Tormin of Plätlin Mastering who has, in the past, worked with Biffy Clyro, The Kills, Lee Ronaldo of Sonic Youth and more.
Onto the song itself though and, after a brief wave of feedback, a pounding drum line which becomes the cornerstone of the song begins and, with that brilliantly anti-Beatles title, it sounds like Pixies and Nirvana going head to head in the best of ways, which seems exactly what the band would want for their ‘grunge from the Vale’.
With only six words (albeit said many times) the track joins Teaspoonriverneck’s Eaten By The Devil in proving that you don’t need to write an essay to make your point as, with just the words in the title, you know exactly what frontman Ollie Goddard is trying to say and there’s no doubt it’s infectious.
As it goes on some backing vocals add some variety but at not quite two and half minutes it never comes close to outstaying it’s welcome being something of a short and sharp alt rock treat.
I remember I Don’t Wanna Hold Your Hand standing out to me when I first heard the band play it live and now ‘on record’ it does the same, continuing the Coastal Fire Dept’s fine run of form as they head towards album number two.
