Month: Jun 2021

ME THE GUTS – Spilt Guts Over Rough Cuts mini album (digital/streaming)

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Canadian melodic hardcore spills its guts

Hailing from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan in Canada, the eight song Spilt Guts Over Rough Cuts is the third mini-album in six years from the oddly titled ME THE GUTS and my first encounter with them.

Right out the gate, Intensive Suicide Encouragement, Thoughts and Prayers For Spaghetti & Meatballs and Get Out Of My Head, There’s Barely Enough Room In There For Me see the band perfectly encapsulate later-PROPAGANDHI homage, armed with the songs to back it up. By Get Out…, a more radio-friendly, RISE AGAINST element creeps in, though When Days Are Dark And Friends Are Few drops a surprising, gutteral-voxed, metalcore work-out towards the end. We Can Do So Well When Things Are So Bad keeps up the galloping pace but the John Coffey/Green Mile clip fails to save When Life’s Rough, Have A Puff from sliding a little too far into strained rock territory.

So far, so mostly good but then we get Making Nothing Out Of Something. Breaking an album up with an acoustic sing-a-long can be an interesting diversion and the song starts out well. Bluegrass-tinged guitar work and a whistling section are fun but the song blows it with a hideously long run-time of almost five minutes. Speaking of five minutes though, and by complete contrast, final song Born And Bred To Bake n’ Shred is a scorching way to round out proceedings. VANILLA POD meets metalcore, complete with screamo vocals, it shows the band know how to close down proceedings righteously.

The lyrics are tidy and themes of losing faith, the recent Western political landscape and self-reflection abound. I did love this particular splurge of frustration:

Let’s keep it simple stupid. There’s nothing we can say to change the minds of ignorance these days. Now your infatuation takes you away to a different state You’ve become so foolish yet still can break away. Is it hard to say you’re not right today? Will you finally realize when you can’t breathe? You’re sucking back your last breath and I could careless you’re dead give absolutely no fucks! You know I would careless or even show up to your stupid fucking funeral! I know a bunch of you would go you stupid mother fuckers. (Intensive Suicide Encouragement)

ME THE GUTS peddle a neat line in stop-on-a-dime, 90’s melodic skate-punk that falls point-blank between PROPAGANDHI and Sweden’s underrated SATANIC SURFERS, with whom they also share a singing-drummer similarity. Spilt Guts Over Rough Cuts is a little uneven, though not unrewarding. While the more radio-friendly moments sag a little, at full-tilt it’s a great ride. Pretty solid.

Released on streaming platforms in April 2021. Vinyl coming soon by Wasted Wax and Fixed Frequencies, CD version by Melodic Punk Style. Check out the bandcamp page here.

THE BOATSMEN – Versus The Boatsmen LP

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Swedish party-time punk n’ roll

THE BOATSMEN are a ‘four piece punk rock ‘n’ roll explosion from Örebro, Sweden’. Versus The Boatsmen is their fourth album in ten years and it’s safe to say they have a formula and are sticking to it.

The first four songs, Action Delivery, Friday Night Forever, Blame It On Me and Thirst Song are all fine examples of their signature pastiche: first wave punk, a boot set firmly in the London pub rock scene of the mid-1970’s, MC5 flourishes and ROCKET FROM THE CRYPT‘s dodgy-greaser swagger. Following the catchy, verging-on-TENACIOUS D-satire of Saved By Rock, THE BOATSMEN substantially up their game. Even The Good Times Were Bad, a minute-long blast of garage punk n’ roll of which WILD BILLY CHILDISH would be proud, ushers in the albums mid-way highpoint: I Don’t Wanna Lose This Time slows proceedings down, embraces a hooky power-pop chorus and sees the band relax into a genius slice of revved-up CHEAP TRICKery. Brilliant. They maintain the quality for a brace of When I’m Drunk and Big Waves, more garage punk n’ roll goodness, RFTC stylings and lashings of cheese (“c’mon darkness and give me a kayuss“).

Clap Canon is a misplaced low point of ugly cringe-rock that nobody needed and I guess this would be a good time to talk about the lyrics. This won’t take long. Hackneyed, cliched and shallow beyond belief, it is what it is, right? In no way should this be taken seriously. Drinking, pizza, partying and lovin’, it’s all here. Daft lads.

Thankfully, they pull themselves together for the final three songs. Ripping through the rousing verse/chorus velocity of Gimme Your Money, thumping mid-section, gang backups and all, they strap in for the style they excel in: greasy, slick, rock n’ roll punk. Better Man goes for a classic RFTC dirge, leaving Afterparty In Hell to to close the show. Making four minutes seem like two, Afterparty… has it all: Southern-fried rock, shades of MISFITS, wah-wah soloing, great riffing and lashings of swagger. It’s so good.

It’s not often I say this but the slower numbers on this album are the most satisfying. That said, if you like party-time punk n’ roll that gleefully embraces TURBONEGRO camp rock, first wave punk heroes like SLAUGHTER & THE DOGS and a little of the ‘ageing greaser’ vibe of ROCKET FROM THE CRYPT, this should put a smile on your face and a spring in your brothel creepers.

Released April 23rd 2021 by Ghost Highway Recordings (EUROPE) and Spaghetty Town Records (USA), so available now on vinyl, CD and streaming. Get it here

Check out the video below for some camp, bearded fun.

ET ON TUERA TOUS LES AFFREUX – Mange Tes Morts LP (Toxic Wotsit Records)

On By personalpunkIn PUNK ROCK, Reviews, Uncategorized1 Comment

new album of torrid French agitcore

ET ON TUERA TOUS LES AFFREUX (TO HELL WITH THE UGLY) are from Caen, France and have been around for just a couple of years. Following a demo and live EP, Mange Tes Morts is their thirteen track debut album. The press blurb informs me that they are ‘a queer punx (sic) band playing inclusive hardcore. No macho bullshit, no virilism, no transphobia. Making music that makes you want to dance and stomp on a cop’s head‘. Incidentally, virilism is a French term loosely meaning machismo. In this context, the macho/manly/aggressive behaviour prevalent in ‘extreme’ music circles.

This intriguing album sets out its stall with Comme Les Autres (Like The Others), an ominous slow build which develops into an off-beat punker avec ranting female vocals. There’s an echo effect on the vocals that, disconcertingly, sticks around for the duration of the album. Epiderme (Epidermis) treads the same path, with the addition of some gruff male shouts. Ce Corps C’est Moi (This Body Is Me) takes an interesting anarcho-crust-meets-post-punk tangent, OI POLLOI duetting with DELTA 5, those badgering vocals ever present. L’enveloppe (The Envelope) is four minutes of steady pounding, accompanied by lead guitar damage and vocals sounding like an ad-libbed megaphone rant at a political rally. Harpie is a perfectly formed, one minute hardcore blast, complete with pick-slide and stomping mid-section, while Mange Tes Morts I & II (Eat Your Dead 1 & 2) gifts us with two welcome interludes. The first is all scratchy, spooky guitar FX and the second attempts a fucked-up DIY dance track via squelchy synth noise. The album ends on a high with Cran D’arret (Switchblade), four minutes of latter-period RUDIMENTARY PENI homage, with an off-kilter rant replacing Nick Blinko‘s creepy crawl.

aaand… breathe.

All sung in French, translations are provided and it’s something of a revelation. Original and absorbing in subject matter and darkly poetic in style, this is a cerebral set of lyrics that should get you a-googling the inspirations thereof. Comme Les Autres, for example is based on French feminist singer-songwriter Anne Sylvestre’s une sorciere comme les autres (A Witch Like The Others) album, Epiderme is a poetic ode to the tattoo artist, and Ciorni Vetier is inspired by La Peau, a controversial, semi-autobiographical 1949 World War 2 novel by Italian Curzio Malaparte. Alongside hard-hitting feminist tracts, it’s fascinating stuff.

The music is stark, almost austere and you certainly won’t find melody or catchy choruses on this album. Relentless, shouty femme vocals over a dirty dirge, punctuated by frantic passages, this is bleak, intense hardcore punk to be played in a candle-lit squat, to a frenzied crowd of radical youth. The variation in time signatures hold your interest, while the melding of hardcore, anarcho and post-punk elements with echo-laden vocals make for a thrilling, yet sometimes exhausting experience.

Toxic Wotsit Records are co-releasing the album with Mass Prod (FR), Youth Authority (FR), Different Kitchen (UK), Anxiety Attack (BUL), Seitan’s Hell Bike Punk (FR) & Dead Punx (BEL). Due for release on 18th June, limited to 300 copies on black vinyl.

Order here

Two For Review: THE WOODSMAN & BORN SHIT STIRRERS

On By personalpunkIn PUNK ROCK, Reviews, Uncategorized3 Comments

bass-less pummeling from The Valleys

THE WOODSMAN – Black Hole (digital/streaming) is a new song from this bass-less Welsh three-piece and a taster from a forthcoming album. Carrying on with their trademark churning noise-rock, there’s no time to waste as everything bursts in within seconds and your brain is pummeled by battering drums and seething guitar. Once again, the vocals are clean and clear – a little too high in the mix, I would venture – and this time round they’ve included an unexpected ‘wooah oh’ chorus. Two and a half minutes of refreshing noise that reminded me a little of early THERAPY?, but they’ll probably hate me for saying that.

Click here to read an earlier review

Released 11th June 2021 on Smash Mouse

another tasty morsal from forthcoming ep

BORN SHIT STIRRERS – Sit On My Face Kyoko (digital/streaming) Three preview tracks in from the forthcoming BSS/LEDZEPVIETCONG vinyl EP, maybe Serial Bowl Records should just release the whole thing already. After all, there’s only so many times I can punctuate a review with the sleeve art. Click here to read what I said about the band in an earlier post.

For this song, the curious bunch of Japan-based creatives have lured in Joey Queer (THE QUEERS) on vocals and a returning Mike Watt (MINUTEMEN) on bass. Joeys’ smooth pop-punk vocals align harmoniously with the grungier, more traditional punk style of BSS’ regular singer. Sit On My Face Kyoko (I know…) is instantly infectious, a hugely enjoyable two minutes of pure punk rock mayhem. As usual, the band throw everything they’ve got at the recording, resulting in a grin-inducing, head-shaking pinball of fun. Love this.

Available now, vinyl out July 16th here