Kicked In The Teeth: Kicked In The Teeth - album review / interview.

Album Review and Interview

Kicked In The Teeth – Kicked In The Teeth (Self Release)

DL 

Release Date: 1st November 2019

Brand new old-school streetpunk ‘n’ hardcore from raging veterans featuring ex-members of The Business, Helsinki Seven and Face of Christ.  Steel-toe-capped punk for motorheadcases … Wayne AF Carey reviews and interviews in his inimitable style.

Fuck me… There’s some angry shit being released this year.  So why don’t we all just kick back with some dirty speed punk from Northwich, who kick a bit of dirt and fun back into the whole scene? Fuck yeah! I speak to drummer / Salty Dog boss Chris Mundie about his exciting new band of noise veterans that pack a punch and a kick in the teeth…but first the album…

Having known each other for over 20 years the guys have all been involved in other bands prior to this. Chris was the drummer for The Business for the final ten years of the band, Jay was in Incisions on drums, Joe was the lead singer and guitarist for Helsinki Seven and Mike played in pretty much every metal band in Cheshire, along with playing bass for infamous Chester hardcore band Face Of Christ. The album was recorded at Foxhound Studios in Byley by Mike Bennett. To try and keep things as live sounding as possible, the band recorded the music live and used room mics to try and capture an honest depiction of the band, only some guitars and vocals were overdubbed separately. Total recording time clocked in at under 24 hours and the 10 track album clocks in at just over 22 minutes.

It kicks in straight from the off with No Apologies Sorry a punk as fuck slammer with rough vocals, pounding drums and a rumbling bass with a simple 2 chord riff running through. It ends suddenly and One Way Street bounces in like an old school Mudhoney tune, it’s a grunge as it’s punk and sounds fucking top. It slows down a little with a fuckin’ killer bass line then whacks you straight back in the face with those screaming vocals that give it a scary edge.

Does it slow down? Does it fuck! Piling straight in again with Patient State which recalls early hardcore, simple power riffs, thundering drums, it relentless.These guys are having in your fuckin’ face fun from the start. Fill The Hole is the dogs bollocks and a live anthem by all standards. Slow down you bastards! I can’t keep up! Vocals wise it’s angry, they’re a bit of Lemmy in there and you can hear the venom. There’s even a metal influence happening with the small solo in between.

Relieve Yourself is just under a minute and blasts you. Crass anyone? Is this about having a piss in a back alley? Who cares? It’s a top buzz. Boys In The Backroom is the mellowest track on here if you can say that. A dirty bit of grunge flecked punk rock that probably gives the band a rest in their live set. Getting pissed backstage comes to my mind. There’s no artsy bollocks message happening here, just letting off steam.

Northern Powerhouse is 37 seconds long and hardcore as fuck. Fuck…. Then a triple whammy of speed punk meets hardcore with Not Alone. Simple but effective. These guys have no pretensions, just pure loud shit for the old and new punks as Life In Numbers shows. Closing track Rain City starts with a menacing bass line then kicks in with a chugging riff and those 40 cigs a day vocals. And then it ends…

And that’s it 23 minutes of no nonsense hardcore speed punk, no frills, no glitter to decorate a turd. Just a fun loud album to wake you up and give your brain a jolt. Expect these guys to be at Rebellion next year. I’ll show my arse after a curry if they’re not on the bill. For fucks sake, they’re supporting UK Subs soon!!

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Kicked In The Teeth – Interviewed.

LTW: How did this idea of an underground punk super group start?  (Chris was the drummer for The Business for the final ten years of the band, Jay was in Incisions on drums, Joe was the lead singer and guitarist for Helsinki Seven and Mike played in pretty much every metal band in Cheshire, along with playing bass for infamous Chester hardcore band Face Of Christ.)

Chris: I’m not sure Super group is accurate, but it sounds good. We pretty much started the way any band should, a pub conversation, we’ve all known each other for 20 odd years, so it was a pretty natural thing to do.

LTW: You’ve all been around the block on the punk scene. Why do it all again?

Chris: Enjoyment, it’s something all of us have always done, it’s our hobby I guess. I don’t think any of us really thought we’d get to the point that we were gigging and recording, but it’s all come together really nicely. We have a slightly more relaxed approach to things I think, we are all a bit older, having known each other as long as we have it’s easy to thrash things out without the worry anyone is getting offended, it’s just fun. Sometimes I think people are a little embarrassed to say that, we do it because it’s what we want to do, it’s important to us that it’s good, we take pride in what we do, but when it comes down to it you’ve got to enjoy what you do.

LTW: Tell us a bit about the album then.

Chris: It’s great. It really is, I spent years in bands playing things down a little bit, when we were kids it wasn’t cool to big yourself up, but now we’re older I’ve got no problem with it. I genuinely like the record, it’s got balls, the songs are good, it’s an honest album too. We recorded the majority of the music live, then did a few guitar overdubs and put the vocals on, the production is great, Mike at Foxhound was good enough to just let us do what we wanted and was on hand to make it sound good. 10 tracks 22 minutes, in and out no messing about!

LTW: Kicked In The Teeth as a band name? Where did that come from?

Chris: That was probably the most difficulty thing we did, we had a few other names on the way to KITT, but the ones we liked ended up being existing bands, Kicked In the Teeth is also the name of a Zeke album and also an AC/DC song, figured they were decent enough bands to share words with.

LTW: Where did the album artwork spring from?

Chris: That was Joe’s idea, it’s the now long defunct Stolen From Ivor shop in Northwich, we are a band from Northwich, we are proud of where we are from and we figured it was a nice little nod to anyone who grew up in the area. You could draw parallels to The Melting Pot album cover too if you wanted, but it wasn’t a deliberate process of thought. They are (as I type) in the process of ripping down the old precinct including that very building, an intellectual journalist like yourself may interpret the cover as a statement on change, rebirth and the inescapable truth that nothing lasts for ever and eventually decay will come to us all, but from that decay can spring something vibrant and new infused with the DNA of what went before………………. but we just thought it looked cool.

LTW: Who is influencing you at the moment and who’s on your radar?

Chris: There’s loads of cool stuff about at the minute, I never really like picking anyone in particular out as I could give you a list as long as your arm, albums this year though, if I had a gun to my head and had to pick a couple I would say the new Gimp Fist record, the new Grade 2 one as well, they played in Northwich a couple of times at The Salty Dog, but they look like they are about to blow up massively.

LTW: What are your plans for next year?

Chris: Gigs, we’ve already got half a dozen or so lined up, some of them aren’t announced yet, but we start the year off on the 11th of January with the UK Subs at Redrum in Stafford. If you  wanted to catch us this year we are at The Hairy Dog in Derby with Guana Batz on 7th of November, with Pizza Tramp in Stamford on 7th of December and then at our hometown gig in Northwich on the 27th of December.

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Words by Wayne Carey who writes for Louder Than War. His author profile is here

Patrick T Davies (feat Gore Tech) - Never Mind That, Isn't He Charming?

Oldham spoken word artist Patrick T. Davies has teamed up with renowned breakcore producer Gore Tech to release a new single that represents a visceral 6-minute assault on Boris Johnson and the post-Brexit UK establishment.

The track’s lyrical content takes on everything from the current PM’s cultural ignorance, his slights on those involved in the Hillsborough disaster and his suggestion that war-torn Libya should be the next new tourism hotspot. Wayne AF Carey checks out another slice of spoken word hip hop.

Anyone who is a fan of LTW favourites The Blinders will remember Patrick as the voice behind the album promos before Columbia was released. He earlier released his debut 5 track EP Terrible Twenties which went under my radar (I still have a rough demo he gave  me!), however this has got me excited. Great production going on, a big fuck off to this government, grainy Northern video, top techno hip hop beat, what’s not to like?

Will the people listen though? ARGH KiD has released the incendiary R10T and everyone’s too fuckin scared to play it on air! Patrick does his own take with a swipe at the countries state, but rants on even more. Highly unlikely then we will hear this on the radio… so lets make it go viral -word-of-mouth style.

Live Dates:
November 3rd – The Salty Dog, Northwich
November 8th – The White Hotel, Salford

‘Never Mind That, Isn’t He Charming?’ is available to stream and download from all digital platforms now via Bare Minimum Scum Ltd.

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Words by Wayne Carey who writes for Louder Than War. His author profile is here

Kerosene: Circadian - Interview / Album Review

Album Review

Kerosene

Circadian

Dakota Records

Release Date: Monday 30th September

After the great comeback album Broken early this year the 90’s post grunge boys turned men are not resting their laurels and are back with another album full of futuristic sounding anthems. Wayne AF Carey delves into guitarist James Mountford’s mind and gets him to dissect the songs track by track, whilst giving his own verdict.

Lazarus Is Dead
“This is probably as close to where we left off 24 years ago in terms of our signature Kerosene sound. The songs gives a nod to the darker side of the pulp-sci-fi literary scene from the 60’s & 70’s, with the likes of J G Ballard and Ray Bradbury; there is something sinister lurking in those predictions of a dystopian future which is now becoming all too true, and that remains a theme through the album. And then there’s our own 24 year coma as a band, and our resurrection both as individuals and as a musical collective – so this songs puts to bed our breezy 90’s thing and faces up to the dark times we now live in.”

LTW: A great start to the album. Cracker of an opening riff, distorted vocals and a cruncher of a chorus. A nice one to kick in with.

Hope Dies Last
“A song that couldn’t be more globally relevant! We have clearly set this planet on a course of extinction, and it is taking today’s youth to stand up and protest at our lack of foresight. Greta Thunberg has become an icon for this movement and her words feature within this track (approved by the Thunberg family!). The time is passed for hope, now is the time for action. You have to wonder though whether it is all too late and we will not be able to reverse the course of events – man’s extinction could well be the best thing for the planet! Musically we wear our influences very clearly on our sleeves throughout this record, and you’ll likely get a sense of our hometown ancestors Joy Division here.”

LTW: Another grunge number piling in with Paul’s vocals giving the song a dark theme and again this crashes in with loads of top noise reminiscent of early Pixies. Belter.

Automaton
“This song evolved from the last guitar riff I wrote 24 years ago as the band split, but if we finished it back then it would not have sounded anything like this! Dripping in irony this song came together because of the tech we have at our fingertips. As a band we live in different parts of Europe, so as we write and record in our own home studio set-ups, this music becomes nothing but 0s & 1s sent via cloud servers, with virtually every aspect of the process digitally adjusted. Mr Hancox wrote a bass line that I didn’t see coming a mile off and that turned this tune on its head, Chris gave us a cool disco beat and then I added that heavy slab Tubeway Army style synth over the top giving us something very dynamic. Paul’s lyrics address the rise of artificial intelligence, our reliance on robotics and technology – again a dark future where lines are blurred between organic and mechanic – who knows where this will end – maybe a future where AI is in control and us humans live in routine, repetitive circadian rhythms?”

LTW: Futuristic as fuck, doom laden, another great bassline and a huge chorus once again. Like James says the synth gives it that Numan feel throughout. The closest they’ll get to an upbeat Goth tune.

Songbirds
“Well we don’t cheer things up just yet! There are always literary, film and musical references in our work, and here we take some of Sebastian Faulks’ novel Birdsong on board – a story love and loss through the First World War, the horrors of watching your friends, simultaneously brave and scared facing brutal massacre day after day – the astounding ability to show resilience in the face of death because we always hold on to one thing – hope. It will hit you like a train when you need it – for when you search for a new dawn. Very much our version of a power ballad I guess!”

LTW: They get a bit mellow on this one and it’s a beauty, haunting and dark it’s a cross between Nick Cave and The National but in their own rights. A tight knit song that gets you every listen.

Soda Queen
“Ok, so we needed to brighten things up now! This is a solid slice of our take on Americana-Alt-Rock-Pop, a bright and breezy trip from coast-to-coast, roof-top down, sun in our hair with the girl of our dreams, the soda queen from the local diner. Very much the pop song of the album following previous tunes like Worthless, So Plain and Spacegirl.”

LTW: Very much what James says here. Alt rock sprinkled with pop and a nod back to what Kerosene were up to back in the nineties. A step out of the darkness for a few minutes of light.

The Body Politik
“This started as a very chilled Floyd-esque tune on a family holiday in the Isle of Skye, but changed into a different beast all together once we developed it. We pretty much threw our Kerosene songwriting manual out the window for good here, and took this on a different path altogether – the structure got sliced and diced, guitars became more avant-garde and the whole thing organically became something reminiscent of the early PiL days! Once again another literary reference in here, this time influenced by a bizarre short story from Clive Barker where hands have their own consciousness! (Charlie’s right hand declares himself a Messiah and chops of the left hand – a rebellion ensues!!)”

LTW: I’d describe this as a more early sonic Spiritualized / Spacemen 3 type tune. It’s got that drone but is more upbeat due to the funky bassline and upbeat drums from Chris. Nice.

Recoil
“Well we take a lot of crap in modern life and we have to deal with it. Slapped hard in the face, we suffer proverbial whiplash, but we have to dust ourselves down and get back up. This is a real dark horse of a song for me, and comes together musically and production-wise beautifully. Thinking back to recording our first album we recorded and re-recorded, and engineered and mastered and remixed time and time again until we had a very clean (sanitized?) sound. Not on this album – what’s been great here is that some of the parts are not totally perfect, some of them are from first demos, some of them have crackles and pops and fretboard noise – but it’s all genuine and carries the essence of the music within it. Go with the flow of this one, close your eyes and think of Johnny Cash’s performing at San Quentin!”

LTW: One of the stand out tracks to me. Paul Taylor comes across all Richard Hawley on this. Dark as fuck with a proper bluesy surf rock feel. The dynamics on this are fuckin’ ace and they show their experience throughout. A lot of bands nowadays would kill to write a tune like this.

Good Cop, Bad Cop
“We all have two sides to our personality – often at conflict – and I’m sure we all reflect on ourselves from time to time and regret some of our words, our actions and our pasts. The first cinema date I had with my (now) wife was Bad Lieutenant starring Harvey Keitel (how she didn’t see the writing on the wall I have no idea!), so if you want to know how bad a bad cop can be check that film out – maybe redemption will come to us all. I had fun adding guitar lines in here, and for some reason I kept thinking back to the groovy 60’s style sounds from Hammer Horror movies and even the original Randall & Hopkirk TV series!”

LTW: Kicks off all psychedelic just to blag you, then Paul shows off his Manc drawl without the whine of Liam and a soul sister backing. Another lovely song with a gothic dark feel, all echoes and haunting vibes going on here. They are the masters of the chorus. This will be fuckin’ top live, believe me.

Evil In My Eye
“This is what happens when you let Mr Hancox out of tagesklinik! Or maybe it was because he went intotagesklinik!? This is a rollicking blend of 1980’s “hair metal” and our post-punk heroes Fugazi, galloping along with a bag full of rock cliches! It would’ve been fun to make a video for this (not going to happen) with a truckload of spandex and pyrotechnics. Paul’s lyrics once again take on the oppression we face within our modern lives, as we unwittingly succumb to the slavemasters of the ‘Establishment’.”

LTW: When I first heard this I thought of Muse. And you will to until the bassline kicks in and Paul does his attempt at rapping. It fuckin’ works. Hair Metal? Fuck off James. The only bit that comes close is the small cock rock guitar solo. Loads going on here. Could have stretched 3 songs out of this one, Great songwriting. Its even got a 70’s funk thing going on! Another stand out for me.

They Shoot Horses
“Yep, we read a lot of books and we watch a lot of films! From Horace McCoy back in 1935, this is a great story of insane depression-era dance marathons that people subscribed to, in a hope of scraping out of the gutter (check out the 1969 film too). Musically we had some fun here, a real nod to some of our 1980’s goth influences, this could’ve easily been an early Sisters Of Mercy tune. Check out the attention to detail on the drum sounds we used in here, we may have to credit Dr Avalanche for that snare!”

LTW: Another tune that recalls early Pixies. Dark as fuck, loud, distorted lo-fi lyrics and a great riff throughout. The drumming that kicks off the bridge is stunning.

Social Butterfly
“There are two important sides to this song – firstly its two fingers up to the political establishment in the UK – and the monumental mess surrounding the whole ‘Brexit’ saga. It’s not pro-leave and it’s not pro-remain – that is a destructive devisive tactic used to create political unrest that can be capitalised on by our unscrupulous ‘leaders’. And secondly this is the first wholly ‘new’ Kerosene song written after 24 years of dormancy – none of us expected that we’d talk to each other again, let alone write and record music, so this has a special place in our hearts in our resurrection. Cautiously released earlier in the year (as per the original Brexit date) under the guise of Def Robot vs Kerosene this song underpins a musical freedom we now feel without the shackles of a record label.”

LTW: To be truthful I dismissed this song when I heard the rough demos. I fuckin’ apologise. John Robb will love that bassline. Shit hot stuff. The closest they’ll get to The Damned but with a bit of a Rocky Horror shit going on. Something you’d expect to hear from LTW favourites Cabbage. Great stuff.

Rock Bottom
“Well we thought we’d end the album on a bitter-sweet note. We’ve all suffered loss, pain, heartache, despair and severe lows in our lives – so let’s face it full on and raise a glass to that reality – but keep an eye on the light at the end of the tunnel – the person (or people) who give us hope, who give us love, who share our dreams, who let us cry on their shoulder, who allow us to share the most personal of intimacies. There is only one way to go when we hit rock bottom!

LTW: A cracking end to the album. Heartfelt as fuck, beautiful, touching, a torch song to people who get through bad times and find a way out of that hole we have all fell in at one point in our lives.

All in all a brilliant album by a band who were promising in a scene I was involved in yet never hit it big like they should due to the arrival of lad rock and Britpop exploding at the time. I’ve already mentioned the scene in Manchester in the early Nineties, a la Solar Race and my own small band, on the scene but under a cloud of music heads wanting something to replace Madchester and turning into a lad rock indie monster. Not a bad thing, however in my opinion bands like Kerosene and the underground stuff which was happening at the time should never have been ignored….

They are back in a new climate now where music heads want something different and challenging. Kerosene are a breath of fresh air. Def Robot are experimenting like fuck and their work ethic is amazing. And it’s all DIY. Who the fuck wants safe?? No one I know anyway….

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Words by Wayne Carey who writes for Louder Than War. His author profile is here