CD REVIEWS Page 1
 
 

LEATHER ZOO - NAKED FEEDBACK

Having had my ears blasted by successive waves of punk noise, I'm always a bit wary of listening to a full albums worth. I usually only find one or two gems and only occasionally do I find one that I listen to more than once. So it was with a touch of trepidation that I put on ‘Naked Feedback’ The blast of guitar noise and the driving rhythm of "Fleur Du Lys" soon got my ears out of their weary stupor. Add the vocals into this and Leather Zoo have got  an anthemic punk thing going on here. Next comes ‘George and the Dragonwhore’ with its punkabilly feel and fantastic drumming, definitely one to get the troops leaping about.

Track four ‘Release Me’ has got a good old school vibe and a chorus to kill for. This is my personal favourite and one that would have been in any hipsters 1976/77 collection. A change of pace next with ‘Serial killer’ and its skanky rock qualities, with a touch of the clash hiding in there, it ends in a perfect 30 secs of punk rock power. ‘Charlie’ is another track for the 76 fanatics and reminds me of the early Undertones (no bad thing). Overall a great collection of songs from a band that deserves as many ears as possible. I would love to catch them live. Great guitars, these dudes have been paying attention to a certain Mr. Jones, powerhouse drums that give the songs a good solid spine, and the vocals are a punk princess revelation, some real singing going on here, cracking tunes and melodies. Could maybe add a bit more in the sonic armament department, a-la ‘Belliss Coldwine’.  I'm about to put the CD back on (at least once more!)

Review by Pig Copeland

   

ONE MAN STAND - ONE MAN STAND

Western Australia is not a great place to be to keep your finger on the punk pulse, but the lifestyle makes up for it, but then something crops up and kicks you up the arse like an exocet and makes you homesick and wish you were back home and involved again. It’s finally happened to me with an advance copy of One Man Stand's new album, ‘One Man Stand’. Nowadays any album that makes me take off the walkman and stop gardening or whatever and run inside to whack it on the stereo at full blast is few and far between. From the first time I saw One Man Stand in a pub in Preston with about half a dozen punters many moons ago they were always a band who I would go out of my way to see and help where I could, no pretensions, no punk rock clothe horse clones - just three lads who loved playing their own brand of punk. A new bassist a few years ago brought new life to the band who grabbed the new lease with both hands. A few of us knew how good this band could be, the first album showed just what they were capable of but the new album pushes the bar to new heights.

Enough waffling on with the album review

I was already familiar with the opening track ‘Break Down The Walls’ - a stomper of a punk track with a bit of Oi swagger thrown in, but the second track ‘78’ shows how far One Man Stand have come in a couple of years since their last album .OMS have upped their game both in the writing stakes and belief in themselves. Starting off with the familiar OMS guitar intro, bass runs and drum rolls lead into a fair paced track about a first experience with punk in 1978, showing the band are not afraid to try something new with the addition of spoken samples thrown in before an ending of a great sing-a-long chorus.  Track three ‘Just Like Me’ starts off with a bit of a reggae dub intro reminiscent of the Ruts then it bursts into a Leatherfaced type aural assault before dropping back into a dub beat, some bands try the reggae route and are unsuccessful but ‘Just Like Me’ is so carefully crafted it works well. One thing OMS have always been good at is a sing-a-long chorus and again this one hits the spot.

‘Take Your Chances’ and ‘Keep On Running’ again with bass runs aplenty and the trademark OMS driving guitar sound, the band have structured their own style that brings a familiarity to songs you haven’t heard before, this is carried on throughout the middle of the album until ‘Surface To Air’ shows a new intensity to both the bands song writing and structure

‘Little Red Riding Should’ along with ‘Just Like Me’ are my picks of the album which is hard considering the quality of every track, this is thinking man’s punk of the highest order and again shows OMS pushing themselves to greater heights.
As this album is being released in Japan track 9 ‘Kampai’ shows off Ants Japanese albeit with a Manc accent (New language called Mancanese?) with a song I’m reliably informed by the Mrs is about friendship. The Japanese lyrics and sing-a-long Oi style chorus is a sure winner and works well.

‘Fetch The Noose’ the penultimate track jumps from the speakers and gives your ears a good kicking with tempo and aggression in perfect harmony.
As a bonus track 10 is an almost acoustic version of ‘Black Hole’, an OMS classic track from way back. Never thought of it as an acoustic track but boy does it work well and again shows OMS are not afraid to do what they want to do and not be afraid of pushing their own boundaries.

Everything about this album just oozes quality from the lively production right through to a band on fire.  An album and a band that can’t be pigeonholed grabbing their influences from the Clash through to Leatherface and producing an album that if released by Epitaph, people would be wanking themselves stupid over like stressed out chimps. This is an album that raises the bar for the underdog punk scene and slaps the face of the punk rock circus that dominates. Do yourself a favour and get a copy of this album then you will start to understand what punk rock should be about.

Think I’ve just found something better than sex, two cigarettes after listening to it again, yeah I Have! Album available from www.onemanstand.co.uk

Review by Humdrum Andy

   

FREEDOM FACTION - WE PRESENT YOU WITH THESE

Hailing from Cambridge in the south of England Freedom Faction are one of new thirty-somethings bands made up of people who've served their punk apprenticeship and decided that what they do is relevant to the current music scene. Up for review are three tracks from their forthcoming ep "We Present You With These".   All three songs  ‘Come Up And Get It’, ‘Viva La Punk’ and ‘Blah Blah Blah’ bring to mind an edgier early Penetration, no doubt due to the fact of Rhianna Milton's vocal delivery, but also on the music side of things the band produce an highly credible take on 77 inspired punk going for melody over speed. As mentioned the vocals are strong and aggressive at the same time showing vocal abilities and the Pauline Murray/Penetration sound is more than comparable on "Viva Le Punk" a great anthemic song that is sure to make people stand up and take notice. The band up the tempo on "Come Up And Get It" whilst still retaining a melody driven by the rasping guitar a theme continued with the final song of the preview ‘Blah, blah, Blah’.

Definitely a preview that makes you anticipate the full release, Freedom Faction are a band that are worth keeping an eye out for.
www. myspace. com/freedomfactionuk

Review by Humdrum Andy

 

THE TRADITIONALS - GENERATION OF TODAY

From Pittsburgh, Pensylvania The Traditionals have been plying their blend of early eighties punk and Oi influenced music for just over 10 years, with three previous albums under their belt and heavy gigging in the USA and Europe, the latter part of 2008 sees the release of the new album 'Generation Of Today' on German label Impact. What the band serve up is 15 tracks of fast paced aggressive streetpunk stepping a steel toe cap doc marten into hardcore, imagine Bonecrusher crossed with GBH with a bit of Rose Tattoo thrown in for good measure moulded into their own style. Vocals provide a nice balance between in your face gutterpunk and quite harmonic rantings (similar in parts to Oddie, Resistance 77 ). Lyrically the band throw in good measures of thought provoking social commentary (‘Propaganda Games’, ‘Generation Of Today’) and down to earth lads banter (‘Lets All Get A Beer', ‘End Up In The Pub’). Clever use of lead and rhythm guitars drive the majority of tracks from the start and provide insights into quite accomplished musicianship backed up by solid bass and drums.  You get the feeling the band know exactly what they are doing in the song writing stakes with short burst catchy solos exactly when needed. Each track screams out for your attention even as the album nears the end with ‘Win Some Lose Some’ seeing the band drop the tempo and delivering a great rousting rocky Oi song. Production wise the album bursts out with energy and I can imagine a ‘live’ show by The Traditionals would not be that far away from this.

Overall the album successfully crosses over the Oi/streetpunk and hardcore genres, not an easy thing to do, definite challengers in my ears to Bonecrusher's rightful title of kings of american streetpunk.

www.myspace.com/thetraditionals

Hear tracks from the reviewed album on the humdrumpunk FNA025 Podcast on the above site!!

Review by Humdrum Andy
 

THE BLAMESHIFTERS - DISENFRANCHISED ANARCHIST

Coming out of Stockton, California The Blameshifters rightly fly the DIY flag and this three piece happily promote themselves as good old fashioned melodic speed punk. An initial independently recorded and released album entitled ‘Feast Before Famine’ was inflicted on the North California scene in 2005 and again ‘Disenfranchised Anarchist’ is another true independent release.

After hearing a couple of taster tracks from the album, I had high hopes of an American band who did not go down the so predictable American pop punk route, and I wasn’t disappointed.

The album kicks off at a great high speed tempo with ‘Fish in a Barrel’ and gives a hint of the tongue in cheek sarcasm of the lyrics that flow through the album. Although all tracks on first listening give you a familiar feeling (NOFX, Bad Religion and even musically The Dickies flashed through my mind at some point) without sounding like anybody in particular, out of nowhere comes a riff that makes the track easily distinguishable from the next and a closer listen to the lyrics on future plays brings a wry smile with the bands take on American life.   It’s a difficult choice but ‘Not Religious’ is the highlight of the first half of the album with its catchy riffs, harmonies and anti-priest lyrics all packed in under two minutes two seconds. An irritating highlight as I had the tune and chorus in my head for the best part of a day! No mean feat if you know me and my short term memory.  

Riffs, melodies and harmonies are prevalent throughout the album and it’s obvious a lot of thought has gone into crafting each of the songs, without over doing it. A lot of albums suffer midway through, not this one. Some of the strongest tracks keep the attention span in check particularly ‘Our Flag Rules’ followed by the title track ‘Disenfranchised Anarchist’ and my personal favourite, ‘Those Guys’. With the very occasional drop in tempo this album comes to an all too sudden close with the final two tracks ‘We’re not that Dumb’ and ‘Stupid Drunk Kid’, both follow a similar format to earlier tracks, but again new elements are thrown in to drag your attention back

Overall a well crafted album with high quality production for a DIY release and a worthy addition to anybody’s CD collection. If two minute catchy melodic speed punk is your thing, then it’s a definite buy.

Check out the band: www.myspace.com/theblameshifters  www.theblameshifters.com

Disenfranchised Anarchist by The Blameshifters will be the featured album on the Humdrumpunk Podcast FNA024 on November 29th 2008, tune in at www.myspace.com/boredom77.

Review by Humdrum Andy
 

UK Vacant - Anyone For Anarchy E.P

Take four middle aged working class blokes from London/South England, add a touch of disillusionment with the invasion of punk by American pop punk, and the current social economic climate and what do you get. Three tracks of pure old school British punk rock courtesy of UK Vacant.

'This Society' had it been released in 77/78 could have gone on to be a punk anthem with its snarling lyrics and fist in the air chorus tackling street violence. 'Watching Me' takes the band musically into the early eighties, again in yer face delivery of both vocals and the music gets the point over about the rise in CCTV surveillance. The Final track 'Never Change' again incorporates a catchy chorus and keeps up the tempo of 'Watchin Me' and brings to an all of a sudden close this first outing from UK Vacant, leaving me wanting more, just how it should be. Not overdone guitar solos, just short stabs of unadulterated punk rock.

To sum up, a great cross between 77 punk and Oi with a touch of early UK82 hardcore done bloody well!  and not one lecture to save the one legged anti-nuclear amoeba in Iraq anywhere to be heard, a joy! Yoghurt knitters beware punks going back to its roots. www.myspace.com/ukvacant

Review by Humdrum Andy
   
 
   
 
   
 
   
 
   
   
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