I saw Billy No Mates years ago on a tour with Frankie Stubbs of Leatherface. In the changeover, The Piss Mops performed which was a band Duncan Redmonds and Frankie had formed during the tour. Duncan has to be one of the most prolific punk rockers in the UK, there’s Snuff, Guns ‘N’ Wankers, Dogpiss, he’s drummed on various other albums, he’s the current drummer for the Toy Dolls and he has several versions of Billy No Mates in the UK, Japan, Europe, Australia and in this case, USA.
This particular version features heavy hitters Joey Cape of Lagwagon/Me First and the Gimmie Gimmies, Sergie Loobkopf of Samiam, and Chicken from Dead To Me; link that up with one of the most instantly recognisable voices there is and that’s a pretty intriguing line up.
Sonically this probably finds us at the poppier end of the Snuff spectrum, which is no surprise when you consider who is on the record. It’s quite nice actually, as I struggle sometimes to determine what he’s saying due to me being from ooop North and all that. It’s lyrically good too, there’s a great turn of phrase that can make listing the various ways he can be contacted seem pretty poetic and the title track takes the endless discussions of types of bread trans-Atlantic; something to think about whilst you tuck into your lunchtime roll/batch/barm/bun/cob etc.
The record bounces along nicely and you can almost feel the sunshine, despite currently being sat in a closed pub wearing two coats on a miserable December day. It’s fun, it’s poppy, there’s loads of harmonies and I imagine it was loads of fun to record.
There’s the odd faster track and the odd more reflective slower number, but on the whole you’ve got a solid slab of melodic punk rock made by the guys that defined the genre. 9/10
This is available for pre-order on vinyl from the Snuff / Billy No Mates webstore
