Swingin’ Utters – Boots and Booze graphic novel & 7in (Pirates Press Records)
This is a bit of an odd one. Pirates Press are releasing a comic called Boots and Booze – it looks a bit like a regular comic, but it’s about skinheads, I think. Anyway, it comes with a 7” recorded live back when Swingin’ Utters were known as Johnny Peebucks and The Swinging Utters at a New Years Eve party hosted by someone called Richie.
First track is their version of Tell Us The Truth (Sham 69) followed by a track called Sorry which I don’t know, but it sounds familiar. They both sound a bit like they’ve been recorded in a bin, which I suppose adds to the the nostalgic punk rock charm of the whole thing.
It’s a cool little addition to go with the comic, and the comic itself looks pretty cool in all fairness.
It seems a little unfair to rate it based on the recording alone as its more of a snapshot of a band in their early days that happened to be bootlegged by someone who chanced to have a tape recorder in their pocket. You can just about make out what’s going on, and it’s certainly an interesting listen if you’re a fan. I can’t honestly imagine putting it on very often, but… alongside the comic as an additional bit of punk rock history, I can get onboard with that. 8/10 for thinking outside the box. Bundie
Kicked in the Teeth – The Life and Times of Ermal Fraze 5in (Rare Vitamin Records)
Rare Vitamin Records continue their crusade to release music on unloved and/or inconvenient formats. I’m not even taking the piss. JD loves doing this shit. I’m not exactly sure how much of this comes down to personal fondness for said formats, how much comes down to fucking with people for the sake of it, or if it’s all just in aid of being as contrary as humanly possible. Hats off, sir.
I’ve only ever seen two 5in records before this. One was a record by a band called Trencher, and the other was by a Japanese gore grind band called Bathtub Shitter. The latter came on brown vinyl, with the insert printed in brown on sheets of bog roll. No word of a lie. And obviously the person that bought it from me in Roadkill Records was a complete and utter lunatic.
The band decided to make this release a concept EP about a bloke called Ermal Fraze who
invented the ring pull. “The idea was to celebrate something that may seem mundane and functional but has been present throughout all of our lives, both at our highest moments and most likely our lowest.” Profound shit, yo. And doubtless entirely relatable because of that.
Anyway, you know what to expect from Kicked in the Teeth by now. A totally British take on Oi! influenced Boston hardcore. I guess think somewhere along the lines of The Rival Mob covering The Trouble in the style of early Black Flag about covers it. It’s fairly enjoyable, even if there’s only one song (in 3 parts) on it. Some might make accusations to the effect of this being a nobby prog rock kind of thing to do, but as it clocks in at under 4 minutes, that just won’t hold up in court. Tony of Nurgle rating 9/10
This is limited to 32 copies on clear 5in vinyl, and I’m led to believe that it won’t be up for digital download. Have a look at this mini documentary about the making of the record:
Buy from Rate Vitamin Records here. At the time of writing there are 7 left.
Witches With Dicks – Straight to Hell 7in(Dead Broke Rekerds)
I love Witches With Dicks, me. Probably most people reading this won’t have stumbled across them before. So I’ll do a brief recap. They formed in 2002 (ish), are based in Boston MA and they’ve released afew records, including fan favourite Manual which was out on Kiss of Death way back when. Obviously they also have pretty much the best band name in the history of life up to this point.
Musically, this is pretty much Dillinger Four / Cleveland Bound Death Sentence worship. And why would you not choose to kowtow to such as they? Whilst comparing these guys to D4 is like comparing a cudgel to a rapier, I’m a massive fan of their rough around the edges, scrappy sound which teeters on the brink of sloppiness without ever succumbing to a spiralling descent into chaos. I suspect these guys are probably professional drinkers. An Extremely Loud and Incredibly Shitty rating of 10/10 from Tony of Nurgle
This is strictly limited to 324 copies on black vinyl from Dead Broke Rekerds
