Broilers - Ruby Light & Dark

Pick of the Week 64 - Broilers

Like a German version of Sham 69, Broilers churn out agreeable punk influenced ditties. A great song from the Düsseldorf based outfit. Why have I never heard of them? Apparently they've been around since the mid 1990's!

Savages – Silence Yourself

I bought this album on the strength of the track that was included on the Rough Trade Counter Culture album that sounded like The Joyce Mckinney experience, a group that Evlkeith has championed valiantly over the years. However let's not make any bones about it, Savages wear their influences on their sleeves and the predominant influence is not Joyce. Essentially this sounds like a Siouxsie and the Banshees tribute band! And as such I wasn’t that sure I was even going to give it any air time on the car stereo.

But wonders will never cease; a couple of listens and I was hooked. You soon forget about the Siouxsie-ness that pervades everything and start to realise this is a quality collection of harsh, post punk ditties which take the sound forward rather than revel in the early eighties. I think it probably helps if you actively like the Banshees' back catalogue though.

The drumming is so beautifully harsh at times it takes your breath away and those tribal rhythms permeate every song to enhance the minimal distorted guitar and the howling familiar vocals. The pick of the bunch are the pummelling, relentless opener ‘Shut Up’, ‘No Face’ which sounds like X-Ray Spex at their ragged live best, and my favourite is the epic ‘She Will’ which showcases those pounding drums and Hooky style base to their maximum. Throw in the most saccharin of vocals and some soaring guitar riffs and you’re onto a serious winner.

If you have a soft spot for female vocal punk rock then you can’t go wrong with ‘Silence Yourself’. In a similar way that Elastica actually improved the Wire template, Savages have done a similar thing with the Banshees. It’s undeniably Siouxsie yet more so!   

 

  

Rise Against – Endgame

Who’d have thought that a band I begrudgingly endured a couple of years ago at Leeds Festival would turn out to be so much fun? It turns out they’re ardent supporters of a range of leftfield and animal rights issues and you can hear the wholesome voice of their protest in all of their songs. It’s undoubtedly an accessible sound more akin to more upbeat Husker Du numbers than the likes of Green Day and as Evlkeith would have it; ‘like Blink 182 but better’. And protest they do with a gaggle of heartfelt, agit pop ditties that warm the cockles of any old cynic’s heart.

‘Endgame’ is somewhat tighter than my previous encounter with Rise Against in the form of ‘The Sufferer and the Witness,’ with a more disciplined sound formed into twelve three minute punk-pop songs. It’s lyrically rich with the usual mix of current issues and observations on the state of modern day America told with machine gun ferocity and passion. Maybe the odd song outstays it’s welcome a little, but in the main the standard of song writing is up well beyond that of contemporaries such as The Foo Fighters or Queens of the Stone Age.

It’s a tough job picking my favourites from this selection as all the tracks are strong, but ‘Architects’ is a stirring call to arms, ‘Disparity by Design’ is a hi-octane dash through the evils of capitalism, and ‘Broken Mirrors’ is a dark rebel song from yester-year. My flip flopping favourites are the adrenaline rush of storming barricades in ‘A Gentleman’s Coup’ and the rousing finale of ‘Endgame’ itself.

It’s another great album from a great band and let’s just hope it’s not their endgame in reality. Hopefully not, as there’s an album pending for this year and the world certainly needs some quality new music. Like Quorn scampi it’s a surprisingly meaty and enjoyable experience from a vegetarian source!

X-ray Spex - Germfree Adolescents (The Anthology)

Looking back it's hard to see what the appeal was with punk. Hindsight shows that the really big guns (The Sex Pistols, The Clash and The Damned) were all rubbish or at best hopelessly over-rated. That's not to say that the influence of punk wasn't a massive positive on the world of music and we all owe these bands a hell of a lot, but just that musically you can file the Pistols next to Sigue Sigue Sputnik and spitting at live bands now seems a health and safety hazard rather than an act of rebellion. And as for the Clash...don't get me started. Only Siouxsie had anything particularly innovative to say.

The real quality in the genre came from the next level of punk bands who took on the ideals and attitudes but added a little style and sense of humour. I'd include the Undertones and the Buzzcocks in this batch as well as the much under-rated and gloriously fun-packed X-ray Spex. I was relatively unfamiliar with the band before listening to this anthology, but the sheer joy and passion in the music is enough to win over the most cynical of punk doubters.

The late, great Polly Styrene is a charismatic and surprisingly powerful singer, and also provided a focal point for the band with her snazzy dance moves and unique eye for fashion. Polly didn't adhere to the punk dogma, but was a true original and created something new and groundbreaking in terms of the look and sound she created for the band. She squeals, screams and shouts her way through this collection of songs and somehow it all makes perfect sense and more importantly, you know that the whole band are loving every minute.

Described at the time as 'deliberate underachievers' X-ray Spex didn't produce masses of material and so the compilation sticks with the classics on CD 1 with live versions of the classics on CD2. All the songs presented are high-octane, sax driven blasts of new wave rock with the exception of the more tranquil but equally quirky 'Germfree Adolescents.' My personal favourites are 'Oh Bondage', 'Identity' and the brilliant but bonkers 'The Day the World Turned Day Glo.'

This is an essential purchase for all fans of alternative music and I was left with the feeling that X-ray Spex were not given half the acclaim, respect or publicity they deserved, perhaps because they didn't fit the punk stereotype created in the press at the time. If I was going to the moon I'd rather take one of Polly's tracks than the entire back catalogue of the Clash. The band were true innovators and deserve re-examining in the sterile world of the 21st Century.