NME Radar Piece: Mike Bones

Meet Mike Bones. A man whose literate, heartbreakingly rendered songs of love and hate are the most exciting transmission from planet ‘guy with guitar’ since everyone fell in love with Cass McCombs. Figures then that Mike was once McCombs’ touring guitarist. Amidst stints playing with everyone from Gang Gang Dance to Andrew WK via The Sian Alice Group, Bones somehow found time to record “A Fool For Everyone” an album borne of playing with “whoever would pass through town and play at this little club called The Tonic that was the centre for everything for in twon for a while” and a decision to finally “record all this stuff that I sat and wrote every day but couldn’t face other people hearing”. While he might sing about a point when he can “give up on guitars” and hopes one day to finally write a novel there’s no need to fret about loosing Mike’s unique voice too soon: “I already have two more albums written and there’s more where that came from. They just need recording”. Of the lyrics of his idol Johnny Thunders tattooed on his arm he mutters that “I was always mesmerized by that combination of sheer dumbness and brilliance”. If emulation of his hero is what Mike’s been going for we are sad to inform he’s failed but what he lacks in dumb he makes up for with a shedload of brilliance.