Thursday, August 16, 2012

Yugoslavian Boys Vs. Girl Sweat Split LP




Up until a few months ago, I had more or less lost all hope of getting into new/younger bands (especially bands who called themselves Punk, who did not seem to have any idea what punk was about...but that's all subjective anyway), save a few of course.  Then, through Oli at Ack! Ack! Ack! I started to hear more bands from the UK underground and hell if I wasn't hearing exactly what I'd been missing in contemporary music, especially the completely worthless "scene" in my hometown.
Two bands that immediately struck a chord with me were Yugoslavian Boys and Girl Sweat, and I was very excited to see that Onec Records putting out this LP, and it does not disappoint in any way, shape or form.
As for quick descriptions of the bands (sorry but comparisons are necessary...neither of the bands are knock-offs), Yugoslavian Boys remind me of a non-theatre school Screamers: no guitar, but distorted bass, bleeping synth, big fast fast beats, and manic hollering.  When I sent a song to a friend, his first response was "I want to be in this band!" and he described them as "Devo on meth."
Girl Sweat reminds me of a swampier take on Dwarves "Horror Stories," sinister blues-ish garage punk through a wall of noise and presumably a drug/alcohol haze.  Twisted garage stomp.
Most importantly both of these bands keep their approach to music fairly simple, rough, dirty, and volatile (all big compliments in my book).  Both exude a sense of Rock n' Roll/Punk danger, not some hokey tough guy shit or posturing, but both provide a great soundtrack to go out and fuck shit up.  Punk isn't supposed to be some grandiose gesture, it's low-brow art or anti-art and reductive in nature, but through that reduction bands can tap into a much more potent vein of creativity, which to me is far more endearing.  It's also a very personal form of expression, basically just doing your own thing and not giving a fuck what other people think.  Too many bands try too hard in many ways and want so badly to be thought of as amazing or some shit, but in doing so render themselves mediocre.  These two bands stand apart (and above) by each taking a simple, direct approach and each putting their own spin on it, you know...what Punk Rock was supposed to be about in the first place, and the fact that it exists in 2012 outside of the Anarcho/crust/take everything so fucking seriously while all the bands all sound the same crowd is very comforting indeed, and like good punks, these bands don't want to make people comfortable and seem to have a damn good time doing so.
The record is limited to 100 copies, and unfortunately for you, may already be sold out...worth looking into ASAP, also comes with download code featuring 7 bonus tracks.

1 comment:

  1. yes! we have 10 copies left and you can grab one from here...
    http://onec.greedbag.com/buy/girl-sweat-yugoslavian-boys-spli/

    thanks! Pete Onec

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