| 2018: PAGE 1 |
| THE DROOGETTES 'Clockwork Girls' (Violated Records) CD/LP June 2018 First time I'd actually heard this all girl band from Philadelphia. I have to say The Droogettes look way better than they actually sound from the stylish front cover of this their debut album. They hit us with a pretty tame 'Verse And Chaos' to boot their way into this album. A song that comes across as quite dumb vocally, as the guitarist Elija takes the lead vocal. Not a good move girls, I think she should stick to guitar as she can definitely produce some mighty chunky power chords giving off an almost Pistolian swagger on some of the numbers, but vocally she sounds positively moronic. So wasn't the best first impression. To be fair they did inject some melody with the backing vocals, but for this introduction it should've been one of their more dynamic numbers I reckon. 'Bitter Old Men' on the other hand is one of the standout tracks on this album which is pretty much aimed at cunts like me. But I'm not bitter just fucking old OK. If they can dig out songs like this more often, they'd really be up there with the likes of past all girl lineups like NY Relix or the Devotchkas. The production is bang on mind, on this mid paced punk 16 tracker. 'Tiki Bar' is faster and adds a male/female duel vocal featuring Noel Martin the drummer of Menace of all people. Its a good trade off in the vocal duel as he orders more drinks ha! They seem to have a few British contacts having just come off the back of an Adicts support tour, which by all accounts proved very positive. 'Teenage Nights' features some good guitar solo's from Elijah and they would do themselves and us the listener a favour if they added more of these to give the ballsy rammala of the majority of tracks some diverse ooompth. 'No Apologies' is 1.36 secs of basic but catchy OI! done in the vein of Blitz who I suspect are another major influence. Meanwhile 'Make Boys Dance' is a slower but more atmospheric number and the lead singer Jenn really uses her vocals well, which created a good atmospheric distraction to the standard punk delivery she usually opts for. Some of the riffs you may recognise, they seem quite familiar but songs like 'Little Boy Bombs' showed some quite different elements to their clockwork stance and made a solid groove, but just needed tightening up. 'The Adict' is another standout and sounds great with more melody than usual and was armed with an addictive chorus of "gotta win the fight". 'Bovver Girl' is loaded with all the usual Oi! Clichés but is quite intriguing and enticing to hear these yanks pronounce "bovverrrr girrrrrl". The Droogettes love going to gigs and drinking cider, but they don't love you! As they tell all their critics in no uncertain terms during 'We (still) Don't Love You'. I'd really like em to write about some of the things they do love besides drink and shows. They seem to sing about things the boys do instead of being themselves more or am i missing the point? But I suppose thats asking a little too much right now? Maybe in a few years time when they're a little more sussed and don't feel a need to follow a genre quite so devotedly we might see the real Droogs? They end with a cover of the Special Duties 'Your Doing Yourself No Good' with an hilarious guest vocal from Steve Arrogant himself, which might've sounded way better without his input lol. 'Clockwork Girls' harks back to the days when bands wrote lots of songs and most come in under 2 mins. You do sometimes get the feeling they aren't quite for real or their heart isn't really into being this tough and macho? Using their femininity more wont make us disrespect em. In fact it could be the opposite, but maybe thats from a pure male perspective? They do seem to be getting better with each release though and are gigging pretty regular. Id definitely go and see them play live if they ever come to England again, as i suspect they are a better live prospect but for a debut album it looks good but left me with a rather AVERAGE! Impression. THE DROOGETTES VIOLATED RECORDS |
| VIOLATORS “Tied To The Tracks” (Violated Records) CDEP/ 7” 2018 I loved the early Violators which featured the sultry Helen Hill and Shaun 'Cess' Stiles on vocals. They brought an almost haunting apocalyptic quality to the whole boots 'n' braces mob of British punk and Oi! back in the early 80's. And those songs like 'Gangland' and 'Live Fast, Die Young' still stand the test of time. (Which reminds me I oughta reprint some of their old interviews on this site). But lets not get side tracked here and back to this release. Yeah the Violators reemerge nearly 40 years later. So was really intrigued to hear these 4 brand new slabs from a revamped Violators 2018 style. No more Helen awwww, no more Coley on guitar booo! But Stilesy remains in the front mans role. And basically no more anyone else remaining either. So its pretty much a brand new line-up with new bass player Alan Allcock co-writing all 4 tracks with Shaun Stiles. Gotta say this sounds better than I was expecting, if you can dismiss the truly atrocious lyrics they printed on the insert you'd be forgiven for reading punk by numbers into them. So thank fuck that menacing musical vibe courtesy of Mike Orme on guitar is still prevalent and carries these songs along. They are also joined by the intriguing new female vocalist Jori Lakars. She ain't no Helen, but she does give the gritty Stiles an equally neat pink Isimo foil to bounce off. You get the feeling she has a lot more to offer this band than the paltry allowance of doing mere back up and lead on only one track. So hopefully more will come outta New Mills before the next decade is over, but knowing the Violators past musical output I won't hold my breath. First track 'All Too Human' owns a classy roaming riff as Shaun growls the lyrics about being out there in the night literally on the cobbles of Chapel-en-le-Frith's rolling hills, but not a "rumpa rumpa" in sight. But we do get a familiar "wwwoohhhhh oooh oooh" which seals its Violators signature and being the best track of the bunch. 'Drag Hag' isn't quite so enthralling, its even quite monotonous despite the "psycho energy" mantra, but is of a similar pace. 'Toxic Graffity' ain't some ode to the old anarcho fanzine of the time, but an anti religion number which introduces Jori to the proceedings. I like her vocal style, its different to Helen's but still gives a much needed extra element to the bands sound and I'm sure she could make her own niche in Violators folklore, given time on top of these marauding riffs. As for the final track 'Corpus Christi', to be truthful the vinyl splatter is more exciting to own than the actual song. I think the Violators need way more time to reach the heights of their earlier material. But time is somert they probably don't have with kids, families and jobs etc. But hopefully I'm wrong and they'll prove me wrong. Lets wait and see. The artwork ain't quite as good as Mackie from Blitz, but it does convey that continual style this band has become renowned for. But the real work of art is the splatter vinyl! AVERAGE! VIOLATORS VIOLATED RECORDS |
