Album Review: Grindhouse - "Sex Punk Power"

 

If you thought Amyl & The Sniffers and the Chats represented raw and vicious Aussie garage punk...hoooo boy, you ain't seen nothing yet. Grindhouse were another band recommended to me via the wonders of recommendations on Bandcamp (because I was listening to the Nottingham's premier filth wizards the Hip Priests in this case) and it's pretty clear they're cut from the same cloth as other lunatics like the Dwarves and the Cavemen. It's there right from the moment that opening track Ass Tonight kicks in on a Stooges style two note riff while the lead singer alternately mumbles and screams over the top of it, one part Nick Oliveri, one part Stanley from Life, Sex & Death and one part a bloke who hasn't realised that the engineer's pressed record.

And so it pretty much continues throughout - Something For Else rhymes "bad burrito" with "man in Speedos" (or at least it sounds like it does) and the likes of Holy Carburetor, Do It All The Time and Father's On Bail sound like the chaos is literally only just being reined in as the band seem to almost be clambering over each other in a no holds barred expletive laden race to the finish line. The only drawback is that it leads to this album just sounding a bit unfocused compared to say groups like the aforementioned Hip Priests or the Chuck Norris Experience or early Turbonegro and it's maybe telling that the best tracks on here, Shit Together, Phone Sex and the chugging Teenage Heart are the ones where they sound the most focused.

Groups like Grindhouse who clearly don't give a fuck who they offend are always gonna be welcome round these parts, let there be no doubt but on the evidence of Sex Punk Power, they sound more like a work in progress rather than the finished product. Good unclean fun then but there's a little bit of work still to go here before they reach the Filth Rock Premier League I feel.

Bandcamp Link

NITE SONGS RATING: 🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌑🌑🌑 (7/10)

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