Mick’s Jaguar
Salvation TEE PEE/TOTEM CAT
NY rockers return with more street-fighting anthems.
Mick’s Jaguar (holy shit, I just got it!) is as NYC as rock’n’roll gets. They play dirty, downtown, Kooler-than-Jesus black-leather sleaze rawk, and they do it with such casual authority that you’d think they were all proud members of the Genzale clan.
It’s been four long years since MJ’s scorching debut Fame And Fortune. No idea what they’ve been doing all that time, but allkiller ripper Salvation was worth the wait. Filled with ruthless bang-tangos like snotty riffer Man Down and strutting sleaze anthem Molotov Children, it’s like the street-punk record Kiss never wrote. Free On The Street has a slinky Rose Tattoo-meets-ARE Weapons vibe (it could happen), 5 AM is boothstomping glam, Speed Dealer is pure, reckless belligerence, Hell’s Gate is a bloozy, evil creepy-crawler… I mean, you’re not dumb, you get the idea. It’s Guns N’ Roses if they never lost their street cred. It’s Hanoi Rocks if one of ‘em stabbed a guy on the Bowery. It’s the Stones if the Stones were 23 forever. It’s hot stuff, man. ■■■■■■■■■■
Sleazegrinder
M.U.T.T.
Bad To The Bone QUIET PANIC
Former Culture Abuse men move forwards by venturing backwards.
San Francisco’s Culture Abuse were shaping up brilliantly; 2018’s second album Bay Dream was a fully carbonated delight, a Weezershaped confluence of punk snarl and pop nous. But bad behaviour caught up with the band, and accountability did for them.
Now the three members of the band who weren’t the wrong ‘un (John Jr, Shane Plitt and Matt Walker) plus Dead To Me drummer Isa Knife have a new project. And while there are some nice moments – the Buzzcocky guitar lines that punctuate Born To Raise Hell, and, um, the Buzzcocky guitar lines that punctuate High With You – there’s nothing that threatens to pick up the giddy momentum of their old band and head skywards with it. Instead they’ve made a perfectly serviceable, old-school Californian punk album. It’s short (nine tracks in just over 17 minutes), and it thrashes convincingly, but it’s not an album with its eyes on the horizon. ■■■■■■■■■■
Fraser Lewry
Press Club
Endless Motion HASSLE
A selection of grand delights from down under.
There are few greater musical joys than finding a band that doesn’t really fit in alongside anyone else. Melbourne’s Press Club are one of those groups. They’re spiky and fizzing with attitude, but they’re too musically tight to be strictly punk; they have killer melodies but are not remotely pop; the guitars gleam and bass lines strut, but they’re a world away from trad classic rock. They’re just them, coated in a fine dust of indie-rock sparkle, but basically a little standalone island of awesomeness inviting you to come ashore on their own terms.
Frontwoman Natalie Foster is a natural-born star, her vocals soaked in uncompromising emotion and moulded around a core of strong Aussie vowels telling timeless tales of everyday life and very modern challenges. But the grit of the lyrics – often introspective, fearful and furious – is balanced by the raw beauty of the music surrounding it.
Get on board with Press Club, there’s something special being built here. ■■■■■■■■■■
Emma Johnston
The Black Halos
How The Darkness Doubled STOMP
Canadian punks still fighting the good fight.
You can’t fault the Black Halos for flying their punk-rock flag high. Still beholden to rebellion and pouring scorn on the straight world with all the disgust that it deserves, the Canadian band continue to hold out against power, corruption and lies.
As ever with The Black Halos, line-up changes abound, although the core of vocalist Billy Hopeless and Rich Jones remains in place. From the new line-up comes a polished, fizzing production that brings the guitars to the fore. The band set out their stall from the off. History Of Violence pulls no punches with a wall of guitarsthat back Hopeless’s sneered vocals, before delivering the kind of towering chorus that’s designed for air-punching and terrace chanting. Likewise the detonations that are Uncommonwealth and Better Days.
Alas, hamstrung by the band’s one-paced approach, the tracks on How The Darkness Doubled eventually blend into one before the album’s out. ■■■■■■■■■■
Julian Marszalek
Nothing More
Spirits BETTER NOISE MUSIC
First album for five years tries to get inside our heads – successfully. When a band say they’re asking their fans
