A kilt wearing Celtic Punk band that starts off their album with bagpipes playing over a Metal riff that would make Metallica blush? Well count me right the fuck in! 😆 Vancouver's The Real McKenzies 11th album, called Beer And Loathing, is filled with all the trappings that their rabid fans know to come and love from this band: thick sounding guitars galore, bagpipes everywhere, hard hitting, well played drum work and rollicking tales of drunken debauchery and legendary battles of some sort as lyrics. If you're already a fan of the band then you'll know what I'm talking about... heh Relying heavily on the playbook The Pogues used to attain success, and i know it's cliched and lazy to bring up the similarities but it's really hard not to notice them, but The Real McKenzies, just like The Pogues before them, are a real deal Celtic punk band, and have toured all over the world and established themselves as one of the fathers and founders of that whole Celtic Punk scene, which is pretty rad and very commendable. I got into the band late in the game, but I still like a lot of their earlier stuff, and this album is full of some good tunes that remind me of that earlier, classic material. Songs like Nary Do Gooder, Big Foot Steps, and The Ballad Of Cpl. Hornburg perfectly encapsulate the bands sound, and the production on this album makes all these songs sound great when played at an extremely loud volume, which is almost essential to any good punk rock album nowadays. The Real McKenzies have been at this whole "Punk Band" thing for a long time now, and they've pretty much learned along the way how to write and create good sounding tunes that will get any crowd of drunken yahoos up and chasing themselves around in circles, and this album Beer And Loathing is chock full of them. Loud guitars, toe tapping beats, sing along vocals, and some bagpipes thrown in for good measure! Beer And Loathing is everything you expect and more from The Real McKenzies, and this album is as good a spot as any to get yourself acquainted with this impressive punk band. Beer And Loathing is another great addition to The Real McKenzies catalog of recorded music. It's catchy, it sounds great, and it's never boring, which is always a good thing. Nice release from The Real McKenzies. Comes highly recommended. Available from Fat Wreck Chords, and you can go here to get the album directly from them. Cool colored vinyl versions available I'm sure as well. Available digitally on all known formats. Like The Real McKenzies on Facebook by clicking here, and follow the band on the 'Gram by clicking here.
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What do you get when a couple of Metalcore bands step outside their comfort zone of growls, squeals and downtuned guitars and start playing some angry fun Punk tunes? Well you get what sounds like Imperial Leather! ha ha ha Or in this case, you get a band called Glorious, who's debut album called Unashamed is kicking up a ruckus on both sides of the pond and for good reason. Comprised of members of the bands Employed To Serve and Renounced, Glorious is a refreshing throwback to a time when Punk was just getting tinged by the whole Metal crossover thing which bands like D.R.I., Agnostic Front , and COC jumped on so shamelessly. The guitars got meaner and thicker and fuller sounding, and it became OK to let your hair grow long. Yuck. Unashamed has all that going for it and more; thick, monster sounding guitar riffs with a fast and furious rhythm section that can speed things up when needed or drop the pace down to a crawl when ordered, sometimes all within the same song. The female vocals make it all stand head and shoulders above everyone else that sounds like this, and the production on this album makes it sound most excellent when played at a ridiculously loud volume. The title track and the song Myself are worth the price of admission alone, and they throw on a fun but unnecessary cover of Type O Negative's I Don't Wanna Be Me at the end of this 5 song EP just for shits and giggles, and it goes along well with all the other songs that came before it. This is a pretty good first release from Glorious. Looking forward to hearing some more stuff from them in the not too distant future I hope. If you're into some hard hitting stuff like The Bronx, or Git Some, or maybe even The Fumes if you remember them, then check out Glorious and see what you think. It's pretty good stuff. 😎 Available from Church Road Records, and on lovely yellow vinyl right here if you're quick and lucky enough to grab one. Also available digitally on the Church Road Records Bandcamp page by clicking here.
This release is, hands down one of the best So Cal Punk records ever committed to 2 inch tape. Ever. It was an absolutely essential part to my 1980's soundtrack that's for sure. 😎 The debut release from Redd Kross has turned 40 years old this year, and it's been repackaged, of course, but I don't think it's been remixed / remastered. Jim Mankey (of Concrete Blonde fame) did an excellent job making this sound awesome the first time around, so I don't think there was a need to try to make it sound better. It sounds great just the way it is / was / whatever. It was fluffed out with the almost obligatory at this point demo tracks and live cuts which is fantastic but it also just confirm that the classic Circle Jerks early stuff was cribbed from this band big time. BIG time. Every fucking song on here is absolutely crucial. Annette's Got The Hits, Cover Band, I Hate My School, Clorox Girls, all killer material from a band of bored teenage miscreants who are still actively making music to this very day. Sonically this sounds amazing, and the demo tracks (recorded by Spot) are pretty impressive and sound killer. The Redd Kross sound shines through early on, especially on the songs Standing In Front Of Poseur, and Rich Bitch, which was unreleased for some reason. Dunno why, as it's a great song and sounds just as good as every other song on here. Weird. And just for shits and giggles, this collection closes out with a song recorded live in 1979 at Black Flag's The Church rehearsal spot called Fun With Connie, which is I Just Want Some Skank note for fucking note. Ugh. Shame on you Greg Hetson! 🤣 With all the classic stuff getting reissued with better mixes and extra tracks, I find myself buying all this stuff up just to replace the old copies I have of the original album, and this rerelease will definitely be replacing my copy of their original eponymous 6 song release that's for sure! This shit's like sweet sonic ear candy. To be consumed in small quantities only though to make sure you don't catch the diabeeetuus like me... heh heh Yeah, even though this repackaging of the first Redd Kross release was part of the uber-lame Record Store Day thing, it's still a crucial piece of nostalgia to acquire if you haven't already. If you don't have this album in your collection then shame on you. You're missing out big time. This stuff is, as the kids say, 'da bomb'. Do the kids still say that? Meh. Who cares... lol Available wherever Punk is bought and sold as the cheap disposable commodity that it is. Available digitally on the Redd Kross Bandcamp page by clicking here. Also available on Amazon (click here) and Apple music (click here). "Like" the band on Facebook by clicking here. Follow the band on Instagram by clicking here.
The flogging of a dead horse continues. 😥 A recently discovered demo tape of a musical project put together by Mr. Colvin with the help of Brian James of The Damned called Dee Dee Ramone's Deadline was committed to vinyl and I can only assume it's for the completists out there who think that everything Dee Dee did was gold, which it certainly wasn't, or that they know that anything with Dee Dee's name on it will sell for a buck, but in any case, the stuff on here isn't that bad sounding, both aurally and quality wise. The 8 tracks that make up this collection are promoted as never appearing on any other release, but I know that one of these songs ended up on a Youth Gone Mad album (I Got A Right) and another was on the Dee Dee Ramone And The Chinese Dragons single (What About This), so make of that what you will. The 2 other guys who make up this band, Alan Lee Shaw on bass, and George Butler on drums, are competent musicians, but they don't really shine on any of these tracks, but again these were just demos and I doubt that they were ever meant to see the light of day beyond the inner circle of the band. Seems like the band was going for a Lords Of The New Church / bad Hollywood metal band kind of vibe, but as always it ends up sounding like the Ramones because of Dee Dee's gift of writing a song. Besides the aforementioned tunes, I Can't Come Out, One Way and Human Being Parade are pretty OK tunes, so 5 out of 8 songs being listenable ain't too bad, now is it? 😉 There will never be anyone like Dee Dee Ramone, and as long as there's a market out of there for all things Dee Dee related, then releases like this one will forever flow from the faucet of the estates of dead rock stars who need to generate some cash. Le sigh. Brought to you by the fine folks at Overground Records from the U.K. Only 400 copies available, so be quick to grab yourself one before they're all gone. Available wherever Punk is bought and sold as the cheap disposable commodity that it is.
Oi! Oi! Oi! Wot's this? 😉 It's the new release from The Jagoffs, and that opening track called Class War sounds like they've been listening to too many Civilians albums for their own good! ha ha ha ha ha This sophomore release from the local Las Vegas band finds them showing their influences on their collective sleeves. It's a little bit of everything, going from sing song Oi! to downtuned Nu-Metal to simplistic D-beat on this much too short 4 song EP. It's recorded really well, sounds pretty killer, and the more I listen to this release the more the band reminds me of The Dicks for some reason. Jeff's vocals evoke that image, and the music's hooky simplicity and hodgepodge musical attack confirm it. Tackling such lyrically diverse subjects as government division and just fucking shit up, this release from The Jagoffs is a pretty catchy piece of ear candy. It's well recorded, it sounds great thanks to American't Records, and its short enough so that you won't get bored of it while listening to it. If that's not Punk Rock I don't know what is. 😎 Check out this EP from The Jagoffs. I'm betting that it will turn you into a fan once you give it a listen. And check them out when they open up for the next big touring band that plays at the shitty bars here in town on a Thursday night. 😁 Available on The Jagoffs Bandcamp page by clicking here. "Like" the band on Facebook by clicking here. You can also check them out on Reverb Nation by clicking here.
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