Sunday 12 August 2018

Idles - Joy As An Act Of Resistance - Album Review

Idles

Joy As An Act Of Resistance

Partisan Records

CD/DL/LP

Release date: 31st August 2018

For all you old seventies punks out there, this is the revival. It's noise with a purpose, It's got a message. It's punk as fuck and brings back all the memories of intelligence in punk by the likes of Crass who were more than just a bunch of noiseniks trying to out loud the rest of them. I can't do this for Louder Than War as me mate Ged Babey is doing it the twat! Join me in a journey of reviewing the most important and brilliant album of the year....

I must admit I've heard some quality albums this year including the awesome Evil Blizzard which has been on rotation for a while now, however this one ups the stakes in a different way. Where the Blizz  have took Psych rock into new realms Idles have revitalised punk in the same way with a blistering album. Their first album Brutalism was a slab of punk that got everyone excited with noise again. This difficult (fuck off!!) second album stays on the same path but addresses issues we need to hear about. It's like a personal autobiography to slamming tunes from lead singer Joe Talbot and is sometimes disturbing.

Colossus kicks off with a one note heavy riff and clicking drumsticks and just Goes and it goes and it goes into a mental riffery of noise reminiscent of The Jesus Lizard. Then it all folds in with a growling bass lick, then ends. BUT it doesn't! It turns into an Iggy Pop punktastic gem mentioning putting homophobes in coffins, Evil Knievel, Fred Astaire??? Crazy shit!

Next up is Never Fight A Man With A Perm which dwells on blokes who think they are hard. Again more guitar heavy stuff with funny as fuck lyrics such as 'You look like a walking thyroid' and 'You Top Shop tyrant, even your haircut's violent'! Quality.

I'm Scum covers your basic Sun reading wanker and kicks in with a Sleaford Mods style bass line and hits you in the face with a killer chorus and clever lyrics.

If you listen to 6 music you've probably heard this song a lot. It's all about unification and loving everyone, colour, creed, religion, we're all one community. Danny Nedelko is already an anthem and catchy as fuck. The bring em up knock em down brigade are already out to bash Idles but this song gets catchier every listen. Early Pixies comes to mind with this one.

Love Song slows down a bit but still sounds menacing, especially when Joe gets ironic with his 'I fuckin love ya... la la la la la la la la la' bit' with a back ground of crunching guitar.

I get really uncomfortable listening to June which his obviously about his unborn child. That's what I respect about this guy. He writes songs about tragedy to a punk theme which must be his way of dealing with it?? 'Babies shoes, for sale, never worn' For fucks sake....

Samaritans is just blinding. Kicking off with upbeat drumming and lyrics like 'Man up, chin up, grow some balls' A punk thriller this one all about hiding behind your fears by being a man and not getting upset about a death in the family or other tragedies. They were even on ITV News about speaking out to vulnerable people with similar problems. A song with a message...

Television rocks out like fuck and ramps up the punk with it's message of 'Fuck TV' Another nod to Sleaford Mods here which is no bad thing as they are the forefront these bands need to follow.

Great is another bass driven thundering track from the eyes of a remainer in these Brexit shitty times. All about flying the flag for Blighty and all that bollocks but also coming from a British muslim point of view to set the balance straight.

By far the best track on the album for me Gram Rock is fuckin quality! it kicks straight in with a quite quiet start of disturbing noise 'I'm sorry you're Grandad's dead.... lovely spread' then ambles along nicely until a big FUCK OFF guitar drum bass thing smacks you in the face at full volume. Sends those music shivers up my neck every time I hear it. You need to hear this song...

Cry To Me slows it down a little little bit (honest) but still gives you that sense you're listening to something special. For some reason Kermit The Frog pops up in my head when listening. Must be a subconcious thing....

Rottwelier just rocks out to make the whole album a special thing. Mad guitars, snakes in boots, vultures in breakfasts, a great end to a thriller.

If you want to hear an album that kicks you in the face but also gives you a message then it's right up your street. If you don't like punk rock then fuck off and buy Now That's What I Call Music 100....

www.youtube.com/watch?v=si2pZRifgIo

On tour soon.

Wayne Carey.





Friday 3 August 2018

Road To Rebellion live review

Thequeers
The Road To Rebellion – The Salty Dog Northwich.
Tuesday 31st July.
The Queers.
He Who Cannot Be Named.
The Attack.
Pardon Us.
As Rebellion Festival is getting closer hundreds of bands are warming up in the smaller venues across the country in anticipation of the UK’s biggest punk get together that is still thriving in Blackpool. Wayne Carey hits his local venue to take in four of the acts heading to the seaside soundclash.
The Salty Dog is fastly becoming the place to be for bands new and old to tread the circuit and has started attracting the Rebellion mob after being open for just over a year. Tonight I get talking to a few heads in the crowd that are heading to Blackpool and are whetting their appetite with a taster of these bands, three of them coming over from the USA.
Pardonus
First up are newcomers Pardon Us from Liverpool. They steam straight in with their power pop punk sound and sound like they’re enjoying every moment. They thank The Queers for giving them the chance of a support and do a short set of song mainly about Tories. Lead vocalist Morgan seems to have problems with one of his guitar strings but seems to persevere and just tells his guitar to fuck off. Good start.
Theattack
The Attack hail from Florida and pack a punch with their tight punk set mostly from their last album On Condition. It’s a straight up performance and tracks like Skeleton and Sons & Daughters stand their own. As does new track Bad Guys which makes for what may be a promising new album in the pipeline.
Hewho
Now it all gets a bit strange… He Who Cannot Be Named was guitarist in punk legends Dwarves and even faked his own death at one point. Tonight he treats us to an acoustic set and it’s fucking funny! Songs about Hate, killing, hating kids, eating babies is all the norm for him apparently? He comes up with lines like ‘Saturday night, wrote my life story on a brick, does a love song section in his own warped way and a quite disturbing song called Duct Tape Love (I’ll let you work that one out). All this in his personally modelled gimp mask and black Y-fronts. Brilliant stuff.
thequeers2
The Queers are no stranger to the Rebellion crowd. They have been around for years now and their brand of Americana Ramones style punk is still as loud and strong as ever. They do a set full of crowd pleasers including the excellent Fuck The World which gets the fist pumping and clapping going, even the grumpy as fuck old school punk stood near me eventually smiles. They can command the crowd with thei large back catalogue and give us some favourites like Granola Head and I Hate Everything. The three main band members are all donned in their trade mark baseball caps and are really going for it. They are joined onstage by another guitarist who looks like he’s been drafted in from a metal band up the road, donned in a Queers t-shirt and rocking out like fuck. They pull off a great version of Motherfucker and do the obligatory cover of Wipeout which was featured on the film Surfs Up. And they even said the immortal line ‘Thank You Norwich’!! It’s a great way to warm up for Rebellion and they did the Northwich punk contingent proud tonight.
Rebellion stage times:
Thursday 2nd August.
Pardon Us – Rebellion Introducing Stage – 11.45am.
He Who Cannot Be Named – Almost Acoustic Stage – 9.55pm.
The Queers – Club Casbah – 10.10pm.
Saturday 4th August.
The Attack – Arena Stage – 3.00pm,