Slitstich – “Crawling From The Wreckage”
Slitstich is a baroque classic pop band heavily influenced by seventies prog rock bands like Genesis, Pink Floyd …. Oh, sorry that’s incorrect, that was The Pity Whores I was thinking about. Maybe I thought about the P. Whores because there are asses galore being displayed on the cover of this album and any unpreventable occurrence with the Pity Whores requires viewing flagrant displays of naked posteriors.
So I’ve never seen this band but waking up in the gutter, as I’m wont to do, amongst the cigarette butts, used condoms and empty cans of energy drinks, I happened upon the CD.
I recognized the name; I’ve seen it around and being of a kind heart I did not hold this against them.
So this band is an equal mix of pop punk, hardcore, punk ‘n roll much like the other band mentioned earlier who can’t keep their pants up. I hear traces of The Ramones, The Cramps, The Clash but never is it rote- paint by the numbers- what you expect. Some individuality is going on here and I’ve notified the music police and hopefully any attempts at pure expression will be nipped in the bud or Bud on the nipples, or buds smoked- whatever carries the longest time of incarceration.
No paint by the numbers? No coloring within the lines? What’s a poor boy in the gutter to do? Well, they sound like a lot of fun, a lot of energy and this sounds pretty good to me.
This CD has 17 whopping tracks and is called “Crawling From The Wreckage,” as I crawl out of this gutter clenching my new prize I feel less ashamed that I spent the night here.
As long as I miss the street sweeping machine I feel I’ve won and I think if you listen to these guys you’ll feel a lot like me.
Well, not exactly- my brain feels like it’s been run over and set on fire and the urine stained pants don’t smell so great. But enough jibber-jabber, let’s give a listen.
“Boom” is the first explosion of this CD. I almost couldn’t “bare” to listen to it when I first misread the title as “Bum.” It starts out with some odd sound bites and then a chainsaw guitar and chopping drum set things on course for sure destruction. There’s some neat response vocals that sound almost black metal-ish. This song is a fierce, screaming way to start the album off right- with a detonation.
[audio:https://www.thrashnbang.com/wp-content/music/01 Boom.mp3|titles=Boom]
This song “Advertising Nightmare,” starts off like we wandered momentarily onto a Tom Waits album but then the channel is switched and a ranting punk’n’roll tune comes barging in. A Johnny Thunders-ish guitar solo, a drop out of all but drums and vocals, a rousing chorus and then some more clickety-clack to take it out.
[audio:https://www.thrashnbang.com/wp-content/music/04 Advertising nightmare.mp3|titles=Advertising nightmare]
“End Of The Line” starts without a pause and grabs you by your throat, grabs you by your ears and grabs you by your scrotum. The vocals egging the guitar and drums on, the bass picking up slack when the others pause. And it’s over before you’ve realized your ass has just been kicked.
[audio:https://www.thrashnbang.com/wp-content/music/05 End of the line.mp3|titles=End of the line]
“Kill Johnny Kill” starts out like a slasher movie or maybe an old Alice Cooper tune. Once everybody composes themselves this composition is a driving rocker falling somewhere between The Cramps and Rob Zombie. Intense, threatening and awesome.
[audio:https://www.thrashnbang.com/wp-content/music/10 Kill johnny kill.mp3|titles=Kill johnny kill]
“Concrete Heart” begins in a pretty unassuming way until some loud power chord checks in followed by a psychedelic guitar lick, then the vocals kick in the energy into a tune that reminds of old-school punk. A Clash song it brought to mind from their second album (but I’m not telling). Melodic and powerful, this is a great tune about vulnerability. “I need a concrete heart/ One that keep me strong until I die.”
[audio:https://www.thrashnbang.com/wp-content/music/14 Concrete heart.mp3|titles=Concrete heart.mp3]
I looked at the “tags” on the bandcamp for this album. I thought it was noteworthy so here it is- dirty south punk worcester awesome garbage hate punk hardcore punk rock punk thrash shitcore usa-.
That’s a haiku beyond my grasp but I think if you take that description in, meditate, free your mind, then there’s no need to read one more word from me.
(Slimedog)
