(Rip Off) www.ripoffrecords.com
The Sham 69 badge prominently placed on the guitar strap of guitarist/singer Yutaka Yamamoto on the back cover gives a fair idea of where this lot are coming from (despite a name that suggests some awful late '80's glam band who'd inevitably turn out to be a bunch of rugby louts from Barnsley or some such having a larf). In fact, their buzzpop fuzz is straight outta c... 1977/78 with a smidge of '80's hardcore locked & loaded into place. (This might help explain why they all seem to be 12). Guitar Wolf without the ridiculous(ly good) Raw Power remix extra extra loud recording levels, but similarly a bit of a pity in the choonage dept. (& The Fags don't have the novelty factor of the loudest album ever made). Stir in some early Stiff Little Fingers, the Undertones & maybe (just maybe) the Dead Boys & a whole slew of 3rd wave (3rd rate?) punk clank & walla... you might have this. Or not. Despite it's darting opener Leave Me Alone (weabve bvwe awooaaauun) which rollicks around a nice little catchy riff & Too Much Pressure it's a tad tiresome which is a worry when it's only 32 minutes long. However it did have me tapping the ol' tootsies at times & performing some form of groove as I wandered the corridors & vestibules of my palatial suburban squalor. Ditties like Nothing Doing with it's Rock Lobster - lite (ie missing the twiddly bits) bass line & Get Your Kicks zip along frantically & pleasantly enuff & are underpinned with some bright, bouncy & melodious bassing. On the whole the bassmongering is pretty darn zingy all the way thru (not bad for a pre-teen). (I'm A) Dapper is quite disturbing as it sounds like Yamamoto's singing I'm A Nubile... in the breaks it sounds like they're about to launch into Bauhaus's Dark Entries - maybe they ought to. But a word of advice... you ain't, guys. Dapper, that is. Not when you're wearing a t-shirt over a long sleeved top like some grunge geek at sixth form. I'd have to give 'em a high score for effort but this has no REAL spark signifying brilliance, definitely non-essential, tho' not a bad listen overall, it's just stuff like this ain't gonna crop up too often on the old stereo. Rip-off Records indeedy. I'm glad I didn't spend my hard earned drinking money on it. - Stu Gibson