Top Sounds - F
FAT CATS – Deadbeat {10 Past 12} It’s easy to see why this 5-piece is singed to Duncan SNUFF’s label; it comes on like SNUFF-lite with a big swing influence. It does little for me; it’s all rather tepid and lacking in guts. Among the band’s number are an upright bass player and the obligatory saxophonist. As with Ska, I find myself asking how the hell this kinda commercial jazz-club bowel-movement crap has infiltrated Punk Rock! The stuff that is rocked up (like ‘The Girl Upstairs’) is stunningly weak. ‘This Town’ features a neat, haunting SPECIALS-esque piano melody and ‘Sticky Fingers’ could be out of a Woody Allen film (think ‘Purple Rose Of Cairo’), but generally this is for those who miss hornblowers such as KING PRAWN and JESSE JAMES. Personally, if swing laced with Punk/HC is your desire, check out ADEQUATE SEVEN – they shit all over this.
FEELERS - Learn To Hate The Feelers {Dead Beat} Five fellas kicking up a shit load of noise that found me frequently reaching for the fast-forward button. Among the band's members is Sean, formerly of THE REATARDS. This lot come on like an under-produced and rawer version of REATARDS with a dollop of THE CRAMPS and a vague aspiration to something as chaotic and scary as FLESHIES - but fail. You get scratchy Garage guitars, indecipherable Lux-style vocals and a cartload of energy, but it goes nowhere. Dismal. Redeeming factors? The 15 tracks only last 21 mins!
FLESHIES - The Sicilian (Alternative Tentacles) This sounds very fucking real. On the strength of the sounds here, then FLESHIES are indeed the real deal – spitting, screaming, pissed off Punks wishing to do nothing more than destroy and then reinvent. Take the nihilistic aesthetics of the GERMS, the balls-out Rock conviction of TURBONEGRO and the glue and acid infused mentality of peak BUTTHOLE SURFERS and you’ll be in the same kinda subterranean gutter peopled by the four members of FLESHIES. On this record you get the raw, melodic dynamics of ‘Rosa’; the snarling adrenalin-laced ferocity of ‘You’re All Doomed’; the pounding Rock hyperblast of ‘The Stuff’; the hallucinogen inspired ‘This Is The City Where All The Dirty Assholes Are Safe’. Ultimately, you get an incendiary, ear-scorching and daring album of Punk (with a capital P) Rock (with a capital R). It’s not an easy ride, but it sure is a ride you won’t forget.
F-MINUS – Won’t Bleed Me/ Failed Society {Alternative Tentacles} 20 songs of fast, snotty, pissed off and arrogant Punk that are spat out of the speakers in 15 minutes. I’ve always rated F-MINUS’ noxious Punkage and this compiles two 7"s released in 1998 + a couple of covers. Both EPs pack a serious punch with gutter guitars, rampant drums and a disdainful vocal that mirrors early Keith Morris. Of the two EPs, the ‘Failed Society’ EP probably just steals it for me with ‘World Still Turns’ being a mid-paced Punk gem and the thrash-tastic ‘End Of The Line’. That said, ‘Won’t Bleed Me’ features a blazing take on NEGATIVE APPROACH’s ‘Can’t Tell No One’. Vicious, slashing, unrelenting Punk that’s played with vivacity and suss. Always a band to rely on. This is essential stuff for anyone who’d rather take a shit on Blink 182 than listen to them.
FORBIDDEN TIGERS - Magnetic Problems {Dead Beat} This record, by these guys from Lincoln, Nebraska, really didn’t do it for me. It’s Garage Rock ‘n’ Roll that evokes primarily a substandard FUZZTONES (minus the keyboards) with hints of a less decadent CRAMPS and/or THE BLUES EXPLOSION with a splash of early STONES about the songs, coupled with an ultra-distorted IGGY on vocals. ‘Penitentiary’ and opener ‘Next In Line’ are convincing examples of amped, blues-infused Garage Rock ‘n’ Roll but, the problem is, the rest is dismal filler with terrible fuzzed production (‘Forbidden Tigers’ itself is just plain shite). Not good, not bad and most definitely not my thang.FORMER CELL MATES - Hustle {Newest Industry} I've been playing this for nigh on 8 weeks and STILL I don't get it. The band features ex-members of COYOTE MEN and LEATHERFACE and play, generally, a dismal greaser rock mix of TURBONEGRO and ZODIAC MINDWARP! It's all well played, well produced and… well… tame; a kinda nondescript background music. There's a distinct 70s Rock influence but given a harder, dirtier drive. Yet, it's still the kinda disc I'd put on when my Gran comes for a visit.
FOUR LETTER WORD - Like Moths To A Flame {Newest Industry} These stalwarts from Wales deliver the often considered 'tricky third album' in a style that is not only the band's best, angriest and most biting release to date, but they also deliver what could easily be the best album released in 2005. Every FLW disc has been political, embittered and essential listening, but here things have been increased 10-fold with Welly's vocals sounding ever more trenchant and pissed-off while the band hammers it down in seriously tight fashion. Gotta mention the drummer who blew me away with a barrage of power, pace and complexity - check out the beats on 'Careful What You Wish For' for proof. Other highlights include that scathing 7" 'Crimewave!' reviewed below, the guitar jostling on 'Coffin Nails' and the pure rage of 'Crisis Of Faith'. All classic albums have strength in continuity. In 'Like Moths To A Flame' FLW has recorded 12 tracks that, on their own, are fantastic slabs of caustic Punk Rock. But put together they form an album that must already be hailed as a modern day classic. Awesome, sincere and definitive Punk Rock.
FOUR LETTER WORD - Crimewave! {Newest Industry} Blazing 4-track 7" that continues this band's legacy of consistently top quality releases. As with the band's other releases, political and social issues feature highly in the lyrics as typified by the staccato attack of the title track and the closing 'Johnny Foreigner'. The two remaining tracks are exclusive to this 7" and include what must be the fast, most biting slab of HC that the band has yet to record in 'Friends In High Places'. Packaging is great too, with a full colour sleeve and an insert of lyrics and quotes relevant to the songs. This is a band that gets better with every release and after all the shit FLW faced with problems regarding the band's name, it's great to see them still fighting - and fighting in such ferocious form.
THE FREAKS UNION - Ever Glad You Were Dead? {Town Clock} 16-track comp collecting this great band’s out put prior to their reformation. First up you have 10 tracks that made up the ‘Ever Glad You Were Dead?’ release from 1999. It represents a much more direct UK Punk sound than the recent ‘The Beginning Of The End...’ album. This sees a greater leaning toward Ska-Punk (although the emphasis is still indubitably on the PUNK), which has a RANCID feel, while tracks like opener ‘Don’t Let Go’ and ‘A Step Back’ have a corrosive ferocity that’s on par with GBH. All the elements that come to such impressive and exceptional fruition on ‘The Beginning…’ are here though - this is way more than basic Punk bludgeon. The final six tracks are from the ‘Backstabbers’ EP from 1998, which, while being under-produced when compared with the rest of the band’s releases, does have a sincerity and sense of genuineness about it. An interesting and frequently impressive comp, but ‘The Beginning Of The End…’ is really the place to start.
THE FREAKS UNION - The Beginning Of The End.... (Town Clock) This 5-piece from Hull have given us - with this, the band’s debut album - what will probably be the best album by a UK band that will be heard all year. The songs are aggressive, pointed, scathing and intelligent with cohesive and fluent playing and an embittered, snotty vocal attack. Imagine the freewheeling political bite of ANTI-FLAG coupled with the early HC bite of 7 SECONDS with a distinctly belligerent UK Punk delivery and you’re close. Tracks like the breakneck paced ‘Worst Out Of You’ and ‘Same Mistakes’, the rancorous rally cry for peace that is ‘Hiding In The Shadows’, the album-stealing, foreboding power surge of ‘Wishing The World Away’ or any of the other seven bilious Punk barrages on display here stand head and shoulders above just about any other UK band at present and combined make for a killer album. Truly impassioned, empathic, energetic and totally essential. smallsailor@another.co.uk
THE FREEZE - Freak Show/ Crawling Blind {Dr. Strange} All hail the good Doc for having the sense to re-release these two hard-to-find albums from Boston's (via Cape Cod) finest, THE FREEZE. 'Crawling Blind' dates from about '91 and begins a lyrical legacy of characters who lose touch with reality, which was finally tied up on the 'One False Move' disc that was also released on Dr. Strange. 'Crawling Blind' features 13 tracks of classic FREEZE - fast, passionate, slightly crazed, melodic and Punk as fuck. Vocalist Clif suggests in the liner notes that this album lacks guitars. Well, it sure doesn't sound it. Most bands fail to sound this aggressive over a six-album career! 'Freak Show' dates from about '95 and, true to form, sees those guitars amped! I've always adored this album and it could be cited as the band's best with classics like 'Insecurity', 'Feeding Time', 'Teenage Satan' and the seminal 'Killing Me'. All tracks are pure Punk Rock laced with a HC conviction. This is one of the most underrated bands in the history of Punk Rock. Each album is an essential slab; musically effervescent and hyper and lyrically interesting and intense. File under 'They-Don't-Make-Bands-Like-This-Anymore' and revel in 31 tracks of pure USHC Punk that the likes of Boston contemporaries SSD can but dream of.
FUNCTIONAL BLACKOUTS - Very Best Of The Monkees {Dead Beat} Formed in 2002 and splitting up five years later, this 18-track comp spans this Chicago’s band’s existence and features a heap of distorted, treble-laden, fuzzed Garage core. As with the band’s final album below, the influence of the GERMS cannot be mistaken, be it the latter or early day material. This isn’t strictly a ‘Best Of...’ deal, but it does compile 7”s, comp appearances and three unreleased tracks. The progression of the band should be noted as the early material evokes the Columbus, Ohio Garage sound of early NEW BOMB TURKS and, more specifically, GAUNT. Highlights have to be the bile-groove of ‘Anthill’, the spite-laced ‘Rat’s Cage’ and the recently recorded ‘Another Planet’ and ‘Uniform’. This is probably more accessible than the disc above and if the spirit of the GERMS but with yet more added nihilism is your bag, then grab this now Mofo.