In keeping with this month's Nite Songs theme of clearing the decks for the end of the year, I've decided to split the Singles Bar into three parts this month with parts 1 & 2 (which hopefully you've read already!) dedicated to single track releases and the third and final part to EP's and mini-albums so I can talk about these in more detail. In case anyone's wondering, the Nite Songs definition is an EP = 4-6 tracks and a mini-album = 7-9 tracks and less than 30 minutes' run time. Hope that's cleared everything up. Anyway, let's take a look at what's in here, shall we?
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CJ Wildheart - "Siege"
The lack of new material from the extended Wildhearts family this year has been a bit of a bugger but thankfully, just in the nick of time, CJ has come along to give us some new material and it might just be one of rhe angriest albums you hear this year.
CJ's last album Blood was a ferociously heavy effort and on the evidence of the ferocious thrashy opener Peking Duck he's not mellowed up any as he ferociously rails against the state of the country in 2020 - it's certainly a song you could hear Ginger screaming along to as well (there's definitely a hint of Get Your Groove On on there) while the similarly furious State Of Us recalls Zen Motel with its frenetic bassline (Lee from Zen has worked with CJ in the past so maybe not a surprise) before it kicks in with a clarion call chorus and builds up to a furious finale with the guitars and drums crashing in on each other as CJ screams the lyrics.
The Ones You Do Not See sounds like an amped up version of 3 Colours Red's classic This Is My Hollywood while Charles, Iscariot and TP are blasts of sheer aggression with CJ sounding like he's spitting nails throughout. Fruit Loop, meanwhile starts as a furious thrasher before sludging into an old school Sabbath style doom metal riff. Closer Shit Brick is marginally more mid-paced than these but still angry as hell with CJ screaming out his frustration and paranoia at lockdown Britain, racist police brutality and just about everything else wrong with the world today and it makes for a good album closer.
A sheer blast of white hot anger,
Siege is if anything even heavier than
Blood was and all the better for it, getting to near Napalm Death levels of fury at times. Recommended for Wildhearts fans old and new and anyone who just feels like they desperately need to vent at the world in general. Download or stream from
CJ's Bandcamp page.
NITE SONGS RATING: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑 (9/10)
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New York Junk - "Dreaming"
Third album from these Big Apple reprobates. I have to be honest, from the name alone I was expecting a cavalcade of Ramones/Thunders style snottiness here so when opening track Gutter Angels kicks in owing more to the "street rat with a heart" melodicness of Jesse Malin, it was a bit of a surprise although not an unwelcome one. She Don't Care is more what you might have been expecting with a ramshackle Dollsy style strut and is followed by the Thunders-indebted sleaze of Walk My Dog.
It's the Stonesy Don't Cry For Me that well and truly steps things up a gear though with its tight guitar shuffle of a riff before Scared hits home with a supremely snotty slice of Big Apple menace. Passion is a more reflective mid-paced number reminiscent of the Dolls' Subway Train before the title track gently guides us home with a lovelorn ballad sound - maybe it's just me but it's these last two tracks which sound the strongest to these ears when they let the vocals and guitars bleed through a bit.
Okay, so it's not really in the same league as the Heartbreakers or the Dead Boys but Dreaming is still a respectable effort which contains just enough of that stardust to make it worth a look for fans of the genre. Not bad at all.
NITE SONGS RATING: 🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌚🌚🌚 (7/10)
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Kid Klumsy - "The Faces Don't Fit"
Kid Klumsy are probably best known as Weab from Dirt Box Disco's other band and on the evidence of The Faces Don't Fit, they're clearly aiming for the Macc Lads/Peter & The Test Tube Babies end of the market as evidenced by the fact that the opening track here is called Boobs. It might be immature but it does at least elicit a chuckle and has an enjoyably silly chantalong chorus. Don't Count On Me sees them go all ska-punk on us but only really seems to bring up memories of Spunge which I'm not sure is a recollection I really needed. Little Boy Thursday has a similar vibe but at least has a slightly better tune, not a million miles away from Weab's DBD bandmate Spunk Volcano and his Eruptions.
The Lost Art (of not being a twat as it turns out) sees them going all social commentary which they do better than they really have any right to while Soup almost sees them going full-on thrash although the mid-Atlantic vocals here kind of jar a bit. They take time out to give the Housemartins' Caravan of Love a good old fashioned Oi-style kicking which is at least amusing before the slightly unremarkable Yesterday's Not Here (which sounds more like a poor man's Dragster than anything) rounds things off.
Kid Klumsy aren't really doing anything particularly new or original here and they're a bit hit and miss but there's enough enjoyable moments on The Faces Don't Fit to at least make it worth a curiosity listen. if nothing else.
NITE SONGS RATING: 🌓🌓🌓🌓🌓🌓🌑🌑🌑🌑 (6/10)
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Reaction - “The La Chunky Sessions Vol 1”
Following on from 2018's under-rated Keep It Weird, Keep It Wired album, it's good to see Scottish punks Reaction back with a new EP. Opening track Illuminate sounds like a rougher version of the Skids with guitars sounding as if they're skidding across black ice while Stay Pretty kicks up the tempo going into almost Hip Priests style territory with its frenetic assault. Kamikaze Baby takes the band off into more Ramones-indebted pop-punk territory but there's nowt wrong with that, before they sign things off with a competent cover of the Sonics' Strychnine which they put their own stamp on to good effect.
The sound of a band who know their punk onions and how to keep things varied and interesting, The La Chunky Sessions comes recommended by us.
NITE SONGS RATING: 🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌑🌑 (8/10)
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Bob Vylan - “We Live Here”
Wow. I mean, just wow. For once, believe the hype - We Live Here really is one hell of an EP and probably the most punk record I've heard this year. Full of pent up fury at the state of Britain in 2020 right from the moment anti-racist diatribe of the title track hits you like a brick in the face with its sheer fury, sounding like Scroobius Pip fronting Rage Against The Machine. England's Ending takes aim at the "mustn't grumble" mentality of the tabloid-brainwashed masses before Pulled Pork and Lynch Your Leaders skewer thugs in police uniform and duplicitious politicians with a truly righteous fury.
Former single Northern Line captures the claustrophobic paranoia of travelling on the Tube before Save Yourself builds from an ominous intro into a sheer panic rush guitar and drums assault urging the population to wake up before it's too late.
Quite honestly,
We Live Here makes pretty much every other "political" album of the last few years look utterly half-arsed by comparison and I honestly can't recommend it enough. Ostracised by the record industry to the extent that the only place you'll hear this album is on the
Bob Vylan Bandcamp page and I strongly recommend you head over there and purchase a copy forthwith. If this country really is heading for a revolution then the soundtrack is right here.
NITE SONGS RATING: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑 (9/10)
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Dead Sheeran - "Dead Sheeran"
And continuing with the theme of bands/artists gleefully appropriating boring MOR artists' names and using them to put out some righteously angry rants at the nation, we come to Dead Sheeran. Opener The Fonz sounds like Sleaford Mods trading in their electronica for guitars and drums with added social conscience ranting against lockdown culture with the spooked It's Fucking Mental These Days carrying on the vibe, screaming out at brain-dead Tory apologists.
Things Were Better In The Eighties actually eases off the sarcasm to come across as a mournful lament for lost youth before the vitriolic Bled By Science takes a well aimed shot at the cringeworthy government press conferences we were subjected to every day during the first lockdown. Mentality Street is a furious diatribe against the smalltown graveyards of Britain where people are sent to die by an uncaring government before the sheer scream of utter lockdown-induced boredom that is Wanking With Tears In My Eyes brings things to a close way too soon.
Dead Sheeran have been written off in some quarters as a poor man's Sleaford Mods but I think that's unfair - to these ears, they're a far superior band, specialising in the sort of gallows humour that often seems to be the only defence in these times. This is essentially the album that Idles and Fontaines DC wish they could make - bleakly humorous but with the underlying message being a desperate howl into the void for this country to wake up before it's too fucking late. Highly recommended - give it a listen at the
Dead Sheeran Bandcamp page. Review of their recent full length coming soon...
NITE SONGS RATING: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑 (9/10)
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Anyway, that finally ends this month's epic session at the Singles Bar. All that's left now is to clear the joint up, and wish you all a happy Christmas and...hold on, wait a second, did I just hear some sleigh bells on the roof? Best go up and investigate then. Back in an hour or so...
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