Liquids – More Thana Friend (Drunken Sailor Records)
If somehow you missed my review of the Liquids full length Hot Liqs, you can find it here. I recommend you check it out. Liquids are some hot hot shit. Kind of like white-hot awesome flavoured soup. That’s why the LP is currently sold out.
This basically continues in the same vein of madcap catchy garage punk. Think some kind of bizarre melange of the Germs, the Ramones and Gas Huffer and you’d not be too far off. If this shit doesn’t get you toe-tapping and twitching, you are most certainly dead inside. And I feel sorry for you, to boot.
You can stream (and buy the MP3s of) this awesomeness from the Drunken Sailor bandcamp page
The 7in was limited strictly limited (111 copies) and has since sold out. There is a little story behind this peculiar number, though. A while back, Ameise, who had cut records for DSR before, decided to raise money for The Golden Pudel space in Hamburg, which was burnt down last year. In return for money donated by Drunken Sailor, they cut DSR 111 7″s. Maybe Juice will repress it. If so, you’ll find it here on his site.
Tony of Nurgle verdict: 9/10
S.B.F. – s/t
I like this. It’s a bit off the beaten track for me, but there is something undeniably compelling about S.B.F. They are basically a couple of guys from somewhere in California (which is, and I’m aware of this, a large and rather populous state). It’s basically a guitar / vocals / drum machine kind of setup.
I’m not clear on what their influences are exactly, but I can I suppose attempt to badly describe what it reminds me of. This will be on the proviso that nobody holds me to ransom over it… To me, this sounds a little bit like an indie version of Nailbomb (old Sepultura / Fudge Tunnel side project from 20-odd years back). There’s elements of garage punk, trad punk, and just a touch of Carter USM and Bis. As I said, it’s a bit odd, but in a kind of fascinating and quite good way.
You can https://drunkensailorrecords.bandcamp.com/album/st-7-3 too.
Tony of Nurgle verdict: 8/10
Senses Fail – In Your Absence (Pure Noise Records)
OK. As a disclaimer, and as honest a statement, I do not set out to actively dislike bands and/or records. I do my best to go in with an open mind. It’s only fair. It’s not always possible. If anything, I love being pleasantly surprised. But this… this is just dire.
I had the misfortune of being vaguely acquainted with the music of Senses Fail during around 2003 – 08, when I used to DJ the punk room at Jilly’s Rock World and Satan’s Hollow. Granted, this is definitely not a punk rock band, but some of the younger kids (mainly from Salford, many of whom have thankfully gone to lead productive lives of liking better music) used to like a song of theirs, Steven, (which was on their first EP that came out on Drive Thru in 2003). Although, as I said, not punk as such, I used to spin this song for these kids, because, against my better judgement, I like to think I’m a decent guy (plus they were blagging their way in to the clubs underage). See also various other garbage of the same era, such as A Static Lullaby’s The Shooting Star That Destroyed Us All, Head Automatica’s Beating Hearts Baby (or whatever the fuck it was called) plus any old bollocks by Taking Back Sunday and Panic at the Disco (amongst other general crimes against music that were disproportionately popular). It was all fucking awful, saccharine, vomit inducing nonsense marketed at 13 year old girls. Properly shit. I tell thee. But, I suppose the public gets what the public wants.
So anyway, now, some 14 years later, in 2017, it’s almost as if nothing has changed for Senses Fail. Still churning out derivative, embarrassing bilge by the bucket-load, only for this one, they’ve gone – dun-dun-der!!!!!! – acoustic with a shitty drum loop. The first song Jets To Peru, is at least to some extent indulging in plagiarism of Blake Schwarzenbach’s post-Jawbreaker band, Jets To Brazil. The track even references their album Orange Rhyming Dictionary (Jade Tree, 1998). They can’t seriously be trying to pass this off as some kind of homage, can they? The guy’s voice reminds me of the horrible sugary blue WKD sick from the previous night that you used to see copiously spread about every town centre in the UK ever on Saturday and Sunday mornings. It’s a disgrace. If I was Blake Schwarzenbach, I’d be hunting these talent vampires down with the express purpose of hammering stakes through their fucking hearts.
Unbelievably, it just gets worse from that point onwards, if I’m honest. I can’t believe I forced myself to sit through this. Don’t ever let anyone say I don’t suffer for my art. I’d recommend ‘Vincent Van Goghing’ your own ears before you even contemplating listening to this awful nonsense. If you truly are a sucker for punishment, you can find it on the Pure Noise bandcamp page here
Tony of Nurgle verdict: 0/10.
