UP YOURS
I LIKE EVERYTHING I GET IN THE MAIL FOR FREE
Thank God for certitudes, they manage to keep up a steady line in anotherwise easily fucked up day-in-day-out life. It's these kinds of certitudes which have got me moving during these
current days of x-mas crap, snowy landscapes and seasonal greetings. Cut the crap! Anyway, like the MRR folk once stated "if life is such a bowl of cherries, what the hell am I still doing in the pit!" But I was
dealing with certitudes. One pretty obvious example is the increasing heap of materials which have been piling up since last reviewtime. Another one, directly linked and I guess, pretty inevitable, is the bunch of waste
that finds the easy way to harbour itself in the increasing package waiting for review. But it's stuff from labels like Big Neck Records, formely located in Buffalo, NY and relocated last year to Reston, VA; which
keeps making it worthwhile. Master of ceremony, Bart Hart, still keeps spitting out the best gutteral garagepunktrash with excessive doses of blattant noise and amped up screech. Besides a whole set of highly tormented and
"dangerous when not handled with care" 7"'s one of the best treats which Big Neck flung out on the masses was "Grab Them Cakes" by The Mistreaters, a wild combo from Milwaukee. Just as their upfront intro, "I'm going to rip your ass open honkey,"
the band kicks off with a TNT blast into "SC Twist", which sets the course firmly for the rest of the yet to follow 11 tracks. The Mistreaters deal a book of cards holding names like mean, raw, greased, and harsh and they deliver them in any postion acquired
by the unwritten laws of standard garagepunk. Their sound derives from the very fine Crypt Records rooster. Sometimes there's that sloppy feel which they manage to hold in control like the first outtings of Gaunt or the New Bomb Turks, then there's this fucked up
trashblues feel which reminds of both Revelators or Hard Feelings and all tracks have that thick fat and swampy sound which both Chrome Cranks has as well. But hell yeah do The Mistreaters RAWK, yes sirree, they fuckin' DO; even better: they make you
sweat and gasp for breathe chasing the willing chicks, who know the ultimate answer to the bands essential question "How Much For The Women". Punkbasher of the year 2001!
Referring to certitudes, here's another one, Jay Reatard is a pretty obnoxious and stubborn person. Those who know his whereabouts with The Reatards will be as surprised as I was to see the same dude pop up in The Lost Sounds. This band may be Jay's girlfriends,
Alicja's band but it definitely has his trademark on it. All through the spherical, newwave-ish trance created by the shitload of keyboards and synths there's the omnipresent fear for unadultered rage, disturbing noisy outbursts and mindless anger signed J. Reatard. It shakes and stirrs
up the innocent beauty and tears down the wall of r'n'roll as we're used to know it. Maybe that's why The Lost Sounds called their debut "Memphis Is Dead." Can't really say I did the chosen direction here, even though they cover Dead Moon's "You Must Be a Witch."
Maybe for a while I can follow the paths of The Lost Sounds as they bring to mind bands like The feeders and GEza X (who were both featured on the "Let Them Eat Jellybeans" compilation), but a whole LP is demanding way too much.
As far as 7"'s are concerned Big Neck Records isn't afraid to give new units an outlet for their first ever efforts. The Mistreaters got the opportunity to have their 4 track ep "Stranded" released. A promising effort which showed the potential embodied in thsese 4 dazzling,
throatgrabbing favebashers. Four firecrackin' fists of fury filled by frustration and fear fired by four apolcalyptic horsemen to give a new twisted definition fo the word "almost perfect."
Another debut came from Buffalo, NY where besides The Baseball Furies another unit scared the hell out of the lawabiding citizens.
This band called themselves The Trailer Park Tornados and their "Heroes of the Hopeless" spawned in indepth look into the underbelly of Buffalo. Their blend of drunken, beaten and shaken punkrock was layered with shots of metal mangled and reshaped at the local scrapyard. Only goal for the Tornados was to accomplish
their search and destroy mission into punkrock fame and as their outcome can be judged here they're pretty successful with a sound that puts them somewhere between both Problematics and Baseball Furies.
Bantam Rooster also did a 7" for Big Neck. In fact "Mexican Leather" was the bands first release with the previous new drummer, M. Alonso (currently replaced by former Dirtys drummer). Both tracks feature Bantam Rooster the way I liked them best: pretty much gone
and fucked up. Trashed and butchered broken blues at its filthiest and thus finest. A neat and fine selection of what I did lack a bit too much when I saw Bantam Rooseter recently on tour with The Dirtbombs. These tracks need to be flushed down with a slingshot of tequila,
forgetting about the additional salt and enjoying the much praised agony of the ecstacy.
Yet another new feature is The Tyrades, a side project involving a Baseball Fury and a TRTornado. Most inspirational input came from usual boredom, excessive drinking and the need to get something r'n'roll going. The eventual outcome is pretty generic, charged and roaring punk which gets saved from pretty average thanks to the vocal styllings of Jenna Tyrade and a well
picked coverversion of "Lifetime Problems" by The Dicks. Both "Vicious Rumors" and The Dicks cover are the winners here!
Last but not least is the second European release on Big Neck after The Blacks. This time a set of young and bored Finnish teens going by the name of 20 Dollar Whore left an unwashable stain on Big Neck schedule with "Teenage Fuckin' Boredom."
Throughout the four tracks a crunching drive sets ablaze the fuzzy riffs and scuzzy hools to melt together into vast punkr'n'roll powerhouse combining the best of Oblivians and New Bomb Turks on a diet of teenage boredom, anger and lust. No wonder this sounds nasty, vicious, mean, but delivers the goodies in the right shape and angle.
A wonderful discovery, I daresay, this 20 Dollar Whore!!
So far as to Big Neck Records, turned into a more or less label-feature, but then again it's worth each and everyone's attention as these folks got a damn right perspective on punkr'n'roll.
