hard-ons - very exciting
a trio from australia doing hard and heavy punk. how to tell you about this album.
i received it a while ago .. listened to track 'sunny' and thought 'yes .. absolute classic album', then as the album continued i couldn't listen any more, so called it quits.
then a couple of days ago i saw it and decided to try a bit more.
now i'm hooked.
as before opening track 'sunny' is the best collision of early days lemonheads meets ramones .. sheer smile inducing surf rifferama with the most awesome chugga-chugga guitars, if the whole album continued in this vein then i would be a very happy man. but instead there are tracks which incorporate very different styles of singing. remember napalm death ? remember the short bursts of noise and deep meaningless gruff shouts .. well say hello .. this album has a few of those and subsequently i misjudged this album .. but we'll come onto those later.
following the happy dayglo opener we have the best rant-n-punk chant 'punk police' which advises 'fuck the self righteous punk police' to an excellent full on blast of drums/guitar/bass. superb stuff.
the smiles are still large and wide.
same goes for the next couple of tracks, fast, furious but hugely enjoyable. in the fifth track 'baka' we have a stunning 5 minute melody lead powerpunkpop anthem. repeated listening has the 7 opening tracks embedded firmly in my work addled brain. gruff vocals, shouted, a lot less melody, but there is something that recalls the 'oi oi' early punk of sham 69 and so is actually a lot of fun, as is 'radio' which has more of the ramones back catalogue riffs and joyous.
now the duff track. 'cats got your tongue'. for about 1min 10 seconds its napalm death vocals. i was too quick and fast forwarded to next track. but dont. get past the opening madness and we're back on track.
there are many more highlights than i ever originally imagined.
even the mad 1 minute countdown in 'racetrack' ('f*cin' eight, f*ckin' nine' etc etc) which precedes a simple one chord wonder wall of rhythm and noise has a goofy dumbpunkrock appeal.
towards the end 'breakfast caramel' has a sweetness and a charm that is at odds with much of this album. recalling the lemonheads once more.
it's this schizophrenic nature of the album that at first i really couldn't get into, but then given a bit more time it really pays off. when in the right mood.
its easy to see why the band attract the celebrity fans of david grohl/iggy pop.
so overall an absolute corker. a bloody noisy one at that. you just need to have the remote control handy from time to time.