Apathy and Exhaustion is proud to present to you Guillotine, the debut video from Back Teeth. The track is taken from their self-titled 7in EP, which is their first release. If you’re old, like me, you may remember front man, Lewis Bloor from his time in Stoke-based outfit, Shermer, who were kicking about in the early 2000’s. Which, long story short is how I met Lewis in the first place (i.e. putting on gigs in Manchester, he used to shop in my store, Roadkill Records). Others may know him by his monikers Party Boy or Party Lewis. Enjoys a beverage, innit. The others (Dave on bass, Tom on drums, and Paul on guitar/vox) have only played in bands at a local level.
We’ve loosely stayed in touch over the intervening years, Lewis and me, which appear to have been far kinder to him than me. There he is, look, front and centre, with his full head of hair. On the occassion this photo was taken, he wasn’t hungover (probably).
Anyway. Backteeth. The Midland’s latest bright not young things. The origin story here is that they met in Slovenia at Punk Rock Holiday in 2022. Some / all of the drinks may have been had. Graeme Philliskirk (Leatherface, Medictation) at Little Rocket Records informs me that unfortunately for the rest of the group, Lewis remembered that they’d all agreed to form a new band and record some songs! Which brings us more or less up to speed, I suppose.
I caught up with Lewis briefly to get a run down on the songs on the 7in…
LB: Guillotine is a standard shot at capitalism and how the exchange of labour for the least amount of money a company can get away with sucks, but everyone kinda buys it as the big dream. It goes a bit like this:
LB: Attention Deficit Reorder is about dealing with stuff by ignoring it. Your Move Creep is about being constantly tired no matter how much sleep you get. Weekend at Looseys is just about getting fucked up at Fest with your favourite bands, obvious references in there to Hot Water Music, Gunmoll and Against Me!. I just thought I’d write it, send it to Tony from Fest and hope he’d let us play.
So, as I say, it was pretty brief. We’re busy gentlemen, mate.
At this point I probably ought to give my take on this, as it’s apparently what I’m here for. Yep, we aren’t really going to get anywhere without phrases like “gruff punk” and “orgcore” (a catch-all sub-genre coined to capture the style of bands championed by PunkNews.org back int’ day). It does what it says on the tin. I’m all for people that can’t sing having a heartfelt shout, me.
On the surface, it all sounds very Gunmoll to me. Which is great, as I’m a massive fan of all things Mike Hale related (In The Red, anyone?). There’s a bunch of earworms on here that recall some deep cuts from the yesteryear of No Idea Records / Kiss of Death Records etc., which is more than enough to stoke the fires of my interest. Think along the lines of the first North Lincoln record meets Witches With Dicks, only slapping each other around the grid with fishes that sound a lot like Iron Chic and you get the jeffing picture, mate.
Two thumbs fresh. Check the full thing here:
The 7in drops today with 150 copies each on yellow or green vinyl. This will be available from:
Little Rocket Records – UK
Sell the Heart Records – US
Sounds of Subterrania – EU
