MURDERER – I DID IT ALL FOR YOU (LP)
So this week’s ‘single’ of the week is an album (because I can do what I want and fuck you!). I’ve only listened to this LP the whole way through twice so I won’t be able to give a very good or exhaustive description of the entire album, but I felt like I had to mention it this week because I can’t stop thinking about the way it sounds.
You can pick up straight away that its tones are quite weird and deranged but the album doesn’t sound too sharp or abrasive to me; it’s definitely easy-listening but more in a way that’s intriguing to the ear, like something disgusting in a horror movie you can’t help but stare at. Its cohesiveness partly lends itself to the very consistent and precise punk drumming, and also to the simplicity and repetitiveness of the chord changes in tracks like Juicy Fruit Dream – as with most punk, it’s not what is done that is so enthralling and interesting but how it’s done. And Murderer show in this LP that they can sort of appeal and repulse the senses at the exact same time.
Songs like I Did It All For You and Piece of Candy sounds (and feel) just like a nightmare I would have as a kid, and I know it sounds a bit niche but if I’m more specific, they remind me of the unending black sky over a motorway with barely anyone on it. The distortion, vocals and the constant metal bin lid snare is all obviously a bit creepy, but it’s the snatches of cleaner notes in tracks like You and Me which is what gives Murderer’s sound such a disjointed and disturbing edge.
There’s loads more to say about the tinkly music-box intermissions tracks (four of them called Perfect), the mixtures and contrasts of pace and the workings-in of strangely deadpan psychobilly, but I want to end off on saying that this LP is impossible to stop listening to. From beginning to end this album is ace and I cannot recommend you listen to it enough.
THE EJECTED – HAVE YOU GOT 10P?
It’s been about five years since I was introduced to Oi! punk and few bands have charmed my ears like The Ejected. These days it may be hard to come by the white-hot rush of adrenaline you’d find at a gig, but just the first few crackling moments of my Have You Got 10p? single are enough to plunge my spirit right back into the pogo pit, where it belongs.
Written as a cultural critique geared towards the ‘classless’ and ‘prideless’ scoundrels (are they poor old souls or real arseholes? Depends on which version of the song you listen to) clinging around the marquee, asking us walking past, “have you got 10p?”, the single’s ruthless pumping kick surely represents something like the unified beating heart of working class youths.
The barebones of punk are sometimes all you need – a snare roll, a big stumpy bass sound and a quick kick is all it takes to get the blood singing. There are still plenty of people around asking if you’ve got 10p, though I suppose that depends on where you live. If you’re wondering, I don’t have 10p, and you’re better off asking the bloke behind me.
MISFITS – COUGH/COOL (1977)
I would like to tell you that I chose this song without the intention to make a really crap and frankly insensitive joke about what’s going on in the world right now, but I suppose I can only say that this version of Cough/Cool is one of the best things I’ve heard from The Misfits.
Obviously that’s up to taste: I do really like the simple drumming and almost-out-of-tune distortion that you can hear in most of their well-known tracks, but there’s something about this single that’s honestly astonishing to listen to. Distortion in its tradition sense isn’t what I hear in the 1977 Cough/Cool but I think this version is more raw than anything else The Misfits have done. There’s something about the electric keyboard’s blue notes and Glenn Danzig’s velvet vocals sounding pretty far off yet still vital, as if the sound is bouncing around a churchyard. And fuck me!!!!! Manny Martinez on drums is a fucking magician!! The snare rolls are slithering all over the place and it sounds so brilliant with all the rest of the eeriness. I wonder what happened to him, he’s the only drummer of the Misfits I’ve ever heard who’s worthy of remark. Maybe Danzig pissed on him or something.
I remember hearing the later version of Cough/Cool on Collection II like six years ago or something and still being taken aback by how it sounded. It was the first I’d heard of The Misfits’ ghoulish stuff at a more measured pace than I was used to, and I remember liking it. Everything sounds more sterile in that version – the drumming is considerably less interesting and the snare sounds like it belongs in a Bon Jovi song – but I’ll link the two so you can hear the comparison and judge for yourself.
1977 VERSION:
1987 VERSION:
MINOR THREAT – THINK AGAIN
(PSA: Attention!! I wrote this post a few weeks ago before lockdown, so I would like to emphasise that going to the pub is NOT a sensible thing to do! But, because of how fundamental this whole going-to-the-pub thing was to my really funny joke about taking the piss out of teetotal people, I thought it would be funny to post (ironically). Just imagine yourself reading this in a parallel universe where the pubs are still open. Close your eyes. Breathe in the smell of beer and fags. We’ll all be there again at some point.)
While I’m not so certain I can totally align myself with the social politics of Minor Threat (hang on, am I the stupid drunken lout they’re always on about in their songs?), I will admit that their tracks are so brilliantly curt, brisk and crisp that they can sometimes wake me up a bit out of my routine hungover-sluggishness.
Listening to Think Again really is a game changer for me, and I’d even go far enough to say that the sprightliness and muscularity of the drumming, and Ian Mackaye’s sober indignation, are sharp enough to launch me out of bed, get myself into gear and leave the house to have another few at the pub. Seriously though, I will give credit where credit is due, and say that Minor Threat pull off an extraordinary feat in Think Again… and that’s a key change that doesn’t turn out to be magnificently crap (I’m looking at you, almost every Oi band ever), and actually sounds pretty good. That, the off-beat drumming and the rapid bass solo add up to a nice and quick, but well-rounded track. Alright, now piss off, I’m going to the pub. What are you looking at?
THE SPITS – SUZY'S FACE
Suzy’s Face is the sort of track that makes me reminisce on the joyous, cloudless adolescence I don’t even think I had. Were your teenage years spent in skate parks under big blue skies, or were they spent more like mine – rolling shit fags in the rain and drinking so much Frosty Jacks cider on the bus that you had stomach cramps the entire next day? Doesn’t really matter: the pep, spring and harmony The Spits deliver (don’t worry: endearingly, their tracks still sound like they were all recorded in a dirty broom cupboard) knocks the years off you. You don’t need to worry about things like being too old to wear skinny jeans, or at what age smoking isn’t cool anymore, because the dumb, Joey Ramone singing and brilliant sameness of Suzy’s Face makes you feel time isn’t moving. The Ramones are back and better than ever, it’s always summer, and you’re NOT too old to throw up and pass out in pub toilets, to then get kicked out by the barmaid.
BLACK FLAG – DEPRESSION (RON REYES)
I’m sure it’s come as a surprise to none of you that I’ve recently hit a period of what I’m calling ‘intellectual regression’. This has been characterised by intense feelings of apathy, getting up on the same day I go to sleep, outright refusing to read any book for my degree that is over 70 pages long, not going to the supermarket to buy food but exclusively eating chips in my pyjamas in my very messy room while listening to songs with lyrics directed at (and probably written by) 15 year olds.
Having a mid-life crisis 29 years early can be unnerving, but instead of being unnerved or being much at all, I’ve just been listening to Depression by Black Flag. I think there’s about three versions of the song all with different singers, but Ron Reyes’ recording ignites and amplifies all the bitterness and angst in the world in this track.
Unhelpfully, I only described Reyes’ vocals in my notes as “US hardcore but good” – but I think I can elucidate by saying that though his vocals are melodic, they kind of course with colour. They carry this vigour behind them, that drives their way through the track which makes you want to smash things, and cry at the same time. Isn’t that what being a teenager is all about? I can’t really remember, but I think so.
CRUX – KEEP ON RUNNING
Even if it’s true that liking music so ‘heavy-handed’ and ‘tactless’ reflects badly on my IQ, you can find me sitting quite happily in the double digits in the land of street-punk. Keep on Running’s simplicity is tenacious – simple, but not stupid. And by that I mean the drums go bmm tshh bmm tshh, the bass pulses through and the guitar does pretty much the same thing over and over again for three minutes, but I don’t think it needs much else. Even when you think the track ends halfway through but it carries on, its stamina is so infectious that after three minutes of the same fucking thing, you don’t want it to finish! This one’s been chanting on loop in my head for a while now, and with good reason.
THE SPITS – BRING
The discovery of The Spits has been bitter-sweet for me. Sweet because I think they’re the best band I’ve ever heard in my entire life, but bitter because my plan for a prosperous future – where I start a new brilliant band that sounds just like The Ramones but faster and full of harmonies – has been foiled.
Unfortunately for no one except me, The Spits have absolutely nailed the quick, bright tunefulness and sour aggression of The Ramones… about 20 years ago. Bring is just as buoyant and catchy – but muddied down with moody harmonies, more distortion and pretty noxious lyrics (mention of glue-sniffing a homage to Joey, I hope).
I think Bring still stands out to me amongst the rest of their ace tracks just because of how annoyingly simple it is, how every chord change is just as gripping and new as it was the first time you heard it, and how it incessantly follows you around through the day. I (don’t) apologise to everyone who lives anywhere near me, because I’m on Day 19 of blasting out Bring as soon as I wake up.
THE INSANE – POLITICS
ENGLISH DOGS – PSYCHO KILLER
In no way similar to Talking Heads’ Psycho Killer, Psycho Killer charges with all the hot pace, brusqueness and grainy electric you’d expect from the English Dogs; but instead of an attack on the senses, you get some nice-and-neat chord changes, catchy bassline and good drumming to match. I wouldn’t call it subtle, but you can’t exactly sit still while listening to it either…
So, in regard to Isaac Newton’s third law of relativity, I can proclaim in confidence that one cannot give in to their wanky studenty senses and listen to the Talking Heads while drinking soya milk tea, without then putting on the English Dogs and making downstairs’ ceiling shake.
AHEADS – OBJECT
Discovered completely accidentally as some of the best things are, AHEADS drove me around the bend a couple months ago when I tried to look up the UK band A-Heads, who were playing at Rebellion Festival. After dedicating a pretty long and very sentimental paragraph to AHEADS in my Rebellion Timetable, detailing how much I was looking forward to seeing them, I soon realised that it was more than a strange coincidence the singers between songs would often change genders. Still, the German band AHEADS have a lot to offer and their album AHEADS (it just gets more and more confusing) is faultless, with not one weak track.
Object has the starkness and bounce of the Ramones and the Pistols as well as the dark melancholy of Joy Division, making for this uniquely freakish sound I really like. It won’t let me link the singular track so you’ve got the whole album here, and it’s definitely worth a listen.
THE BLOOD - MEGALOMANIA
It may look like I’m a lazy arsehole for not writing for this long, but in actuality, you’ll find that I’m a lazy arsehole who can’t write either – I’ve tried for the last two weeks to review one of my favourite albums of all fucking time, but I’ve been completely unable to illustrate one gram of the justice it deserves. Instead of trying to make that review readable, I moved out to university, leaving behind my precious records, and started drinking supermarket-brand Strongbow every night. My lack of punk records led me to the unthinkable: playing the likes of The Cure, The Police and Joy Division in my room – and this has continued up until this morning when I woke up and realised that these songs were much too articulate, intelligent and sentimental to be coming out of my bedroom. Here’s to my epiphany, following my six day hiatus from hardcore punk: an ace song by The Blood, Megalomania. I wish I knew what he was saying though.
T.D.A. - T.D.A.
My new ‘100% Hardcore Punk‘ compilation CD containing, you guessed it, 40 hardcore-punk classics, has bestowed on me a few hardcore gems I’d never heard of before. Amongst the raucousness though, one quick, straight-to-the-point, crudely distorted, and incomprehensible beauty stood out to me, which is of course, T.D.A.. What the fuck does T.D.A. even mean? I don’t know!
A-HEADS – DYING MAN
I’m sure you’ll all be devastated by a pre-Rebellion-review spoiler, but I missed seeing the A-Heads because I was in the fucking chip shop! In my drunken and bruised stupor, I’d forgotten that I was supposed to rush off after GBH had finished to catch the last half of their set, so instead, I weeped into my chips and gravy. I would’ve loved to hear Dying Man live and as some kind of cruel punishment, I’ve had it stuck in my head all week.
T.S.O.L. - THE TRIANGLE
T.S.O.L. have to be one of the most strangely good punk bands out there, and their Damned-style deathrock album Dance With Me had me hooked from the first minute. I’ve had The Triangle on repeat because of its horror-punk gloom (I didn’t even know any other band but the Misfits could do horror-punk well, so nice going lads), and Jack Grisham’s weird American Johnny Rotten vocals alongside the groaning electric guitar, the ticking leaden ride and stark and thick bass rising and falling. I was listening to Dance With Me for free, and five minutes in decided to spend six whole quid on the CD so either I’m just a fantastically supportive person, or they’re a pretty decent band.
DEAD KENNEDYS - VIVA LAS VEGAS
I will admit that I’ve been particularly unproductive lately but in my defence, the combination of drunken punk gigs, going to work a somewhat reasonable amount of nights a week, last minute trips to the pub and the World Cup has definitely taken its toll on my already fading ‘gap-year’ brain.
Something I have done in this recent period is spend an unjustifiable amount of money on a Dead Kennedys Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables vinyl (when I should have just illegally downloaded it like a normal person), and in this escapade I discovered that their cover of Viva Las Vegas is my favourite track on the entire, stupidly good album.
I’ve talked before about DK’s skill for covering songs in a way that makes you believe there’s no way it could have existed as an original, and this still applies even for something as obvious as an Elvis song: Ted’s speedy drumming is punky and crisp, the stark, LED-bright guitar riffs screech and teeter, and Klaus Flouride’s bass is as thick and burly as Jello Biafra’s Elvis-esque vibrato. I don’t think there’s anything the Dead Kennedys can’t pull off.
FLIPPER – SACRIFICE
If this is your first time hearing Flipper then get ready for a great big, sludgy chasm of noise that drenches you to the bone in its damp, dark tones. And seriously, Sacrifice is some of the heaviest stuff I’ve heard in a while. The bassline is practically boiling with droning distortion, the toms and snares clobber and grind and Will Shatter’s baleful, American snarl seeps poison. Would you look at that, this week’s post contains more adjectives than sweary exclamations! Next thing you know I’ll have a degree.
THE PARTISANS – MINDLESS VIOLENCE
THE PARTISANS – 17 YEARS OF HELL
SEX PISTOLS – I WANNA BE ME
THE INSANE – LAST DAY
Another gem discovered amongst the realms of incomprehensible punk. This time round, Last Day is seismic with rumbling distortion, sporting a snare that sounds almost diabolical as it spats along (you’ll know what I mean when you hear it) and a hard riff you really can’t get out of your head. I heard this first from the Punk and Disorderly Collection and man is that drum-kit an anomaly, even for punk. Maybe next week I’ll have a song for you with actual instruments in. Don’t hold me to it though.
THE STENCH – ADOPTION
Taken from their 7” Moral Debauchery – described by Ian Glasper in Burning Britain as “badly recorded and played” by a band that’s “musically poor” – I needed no more persuading. Introducing what must be the most disgusting guitar sound I have ever heard in my life (a fucking great achievement given my fondness of “lo-fi” punk): – Adoption‘s been playing in my house all week. Digging further on YouTube I managed to find another Stench track called ECT, and although it’s not my single of the week, I’ll have to include it because it is honestly astonishing how many instruments are played with complete ignorance to each other. Who said punk wasn’t inspiring?
ANTISECT – OUT FROM THE VOID PT. 2
MAYHEM - BLOOD MONEY
BUZZCOCKS – BREAKDOWN
What a massively under-rated track. Breakdown is rapid, harsher, more jagged than the self-proclaimed ‘pop’ hits the Buzzcocks are remembered by. Its tune gripping and vivid, its feel fresh and lively – and as one of the first punk singles to hit the UK in ’77, Breakdown deserves triple the credit it gets.
RAMONES – ANIMAL BOY
Uncharacteristic of a typical late eighties Ramones release, Animal Boy is quick, sharp and unsweetened; Joey’s harsher on vocals alongside a harder electric guitar, with the snare stampeding throughout. I doubt I have the licence to say this, but Animal Boy seems to me to have taken note of the UK hardcore-punk sound with its solid, compacted feel and tempered energy – and it stands steady in the top three of my favourite Ramones songs.
THE EJECTED – I DON'T CARE
I Don’t Care is an addictive, spring-time pogo anthem. Its bouncing pace, cockney chants and classic Ejected bassline remains buoyant and full as the hard snare punches, making it impossible to resist nodding along (or jumping around and kicking something, whatever floats your boat). It’s a real uplifting track – as uplifting as lyrics like ‘I just wanna spend the night puking up on you’ can be anyway.
MISFITS – IN THE DOORWAY
If you ever wanted to hear what a sludgy ghoulish dream would sound like, then this is the song for you! Like a lot of other tracks on their Static Age album, In The Doorway carries a gloomy, dingy sound that grumbles with distortion as it washes over you, Danzig’s vocal moving smoothly throughout, like rich velvet. Although it bears a different kind of energy to the other singles of the week I’ve posted, I really can’t shake this song. If you like it as much as I do, I’m sure it’ll be living with you for a good few days.
THE EXPLOITED – DEAD CITIES
SUBHUMANS – LOVE IS...
So there I was, just listening to Subhumans’ Religious Wars EP, as you do, and as the title track faded down and the hi-hat tattered away into the next song, there was nothing that could’ve prepared me for the whirlwind that is Love Is….
Packed full of speed and dynamism, Subhumans brings such an explosive energy to the table: Dick’s vocals are hostile yet agonised, the metal of cymbals smash as riffs teeter, spill and writhe everywhere, like a huge, terrible serpent who’s just broken up with their girlfriend – Love Is… is the perfect punk answer to heartbreak.
THE CRAMPS – HUMAN FLY
Have you had your tetanus shot? Because The Cramps’ filthy, rusty sound is venomous, dirty and boy is it contagious. Its psychobilly riffs teeter and buzz with thick, muddy distortion, the sharp ticking of cymbals piercing the radioactive carpet. Lux Interior’s vocal looms like an evil Frankenstein’s-monster as the drums stamp down steadily, together forming a freakish zombie-walk from start to finish. Human Fly is an old, nasty horror movie in two and a half minutes, and its weight really knocks you back.
THE ACCURSED – ACCURSED
In my heart, The Accursed hold the diamond trophy for the world’s best worst punk band.
Although it’s sometimes hard to listen to their albums Aggressive Punk and Up With The Punks without bursting out laughing at some points, I do reach for their records really quite often: a lot of their songs are really ace, even if the execution doesn’t always follow suit. But, Accursed is one of their masterpieces.
A hail of drum rolls (timing=questionable) preface the great, bumbling bassline and electric guitar so dirty it hums with radioactivity, Steve Hall’s barking vocal entering the battleground with what can best be described as a ‘cumbersome charm’. Seriously, the musicianship here is decent and the song-writing is great, but all of them together at the same time create something… ambiguous… but oddly, very very listenable!
(The song has been taken off YouTube but it’s the first track of this LP. The whole thing is ace and funny so it’s worth a listen)
COSMIC PSYCHOS – DECADENCE
Coming at you from the ingenious creators of Pub, Nice Day to go to the Pub and Fuckwit City… the Aussie legends Cosmic Psychos’ Decadence, from their self-named debut, is perfectly addictive.
This one feels less jovial than their later hits with its deep, distorted electric brooding, welcoming us in as the snares mound, though it does keep to the classic Cosmic Psychos Code of Conduct: staying steady on the ride throughout (merciless on the arms), alongside the bass (which does exactly as the lead guitar), both continuing through an essential guitar solo (that no one really enjoys except the guitarist). And it’s good every fucking time! How do they do it!?