Red Hot Pussy Liquor -Broke, But Not Broken CD-R(Demon Nation)

This 2007 Red Hot Pussy Liquor CD-R is one very impressive package presentation wise. The layout and design and lyric sheet rivals a lot of regular CD releases. I didn't realize it was a CD-R until I tried playing it on a CD player I have that refuses to play it.

In his excellent New Zealand music book Ready to Fly New Zealand music writer/poet/reviewer, David Eggleton wrote something along the lines that a lot of New Plymouth bands were influenced by heavy metal and were heavy on comic-shlock imagery. The cover to this CD carries on that tradition in fine form. Pussy, Drugs, Liquor, complaining neighbours are Red Hot Pussy Liquor's main lyrical themes.

On to the music, it's punk with a touch of a metal influence. The album was recorded live in one hour so there's very much a live feel to this release. To my ears the drums sound louder than they really should be in places but I suspect that's due to live recording. At times vocalist Grady Waite sounds a lot like Sticky Filth's Craig Radford but that's hardly a complaint.

The first song Live For One Day is a song that wouldn't sound out of place on a Sloppy Seconds album.
The band's theme song Red Hot Pussy Liquor is a raging chug-long sing-song. Pussy Liquor!!
Smack the Bitch Back is a great revenge anthem. Some call me a loser. Some call me hardcore. I'm just glad I broke this motherfucker's jaw
S.O.S. is a song where Grady's voice reminds me a lot of Sticky Filth. The chorus is catchy as hell.
Suicidal Land shows the serious side of this band. This is another song that reminds me of Sloppy Seconds with a touch of the Ramones and sprinkle of Suicidal Tendencies.
Wicked Wicked is one of the highlights. An ode to rock and roll and women that is bound to offend a few.
40 hour week is another highly catchy number about the futility of working life. Buteel street is the first song about a complaining item and there is a copy of the newspaper clip that this incident is about attached to the lyric sheet.
Burn Mikey Burn is a highly catchy punk number that could either be about a boy racer or someone that has an expensive car for show rather than driving. I love the fast chorus.
Drugs and Scum would be my pick for the best song on this release. The mixture of slow and fast parts are perfect.
A few of the song on this CD can be heard on Red Hot Pussy Liquor's myspace page

To order this release email demonnationmusic[AT]gmail.com

Dag Nasty - Field Day (1988)

Happy New Year. After saying that music download file blogs suck I've decided to post an out of print album for download. So I guess my New Year's resolution is to stop saying things I will later contradict(actually it's not).

Anyway now that it's 2008 it's been 20 years since above pictured album was released. Dag Nasty were a highly influential pop-punk band during the 80s. Some credit them with being one of the originators of the emo movement. I first heard of Dag Nasty in the late 80s/early 90s due to pre-internet tape trading being one way of discovering new bands(to you). I was interested in hearing Minor Threat and was sent a tape with Dag Nasty's Wig Out at Denko's album because Dag Nasty featured ex-Minor Threat members. To my ears at the time, the more personal lyrics and punk sound crossed with pop was much more appealing than Minor Threat's straight edge thrash which had lyrics and a philosphy that meant nothing to me.

Eventually I discovered a double CD which had both Dag Nasty's Wig Out at Denko's album and Can I Say. Can I Say features Dave Smalley(who is now better known for fronting Down By Law) on vocals and retains a hardcore punk sound but Wig Out at Denko's has Peter Cortner on vocals and largely due to his vocals is more pop-orientated.


Dag Nasty had a reputation as a straight edge band partially due to having an ex-Minor Threat member. The Wig Out at Denko's song Crucial Three hints at the 'rules' of straight edge set down by Minor Threat. However during the time of Field Day Dag Nasty had decided to experiment with being coke-heads so some of the band's recording budget disappeared on 'inspiration'. At times it sounds like Peter Cortner is singing with a bad dose of the flu. However the song All Ages Show sounds like it could have come from Field Day and was my reason for searching high and low for this album. Field Day never earned Dag Nasty any money however Peter Cortner still receives royalties from Wig Out. The band cover The Ruts song Staring at the Rude Boys, Wire's 12XU (when the band played this live many people thought they were discovering the guitarist's better band as Minor Threat also covered the song. There are re-recordings of the songs I've Heard and Under Your Influence(which features a tacky Led Zeppelin 'baby baby' part) which originally appeared on Can I Say with Dave Smalley on vocals.

Field Day is very much a mixed bag of alternative/pop/punk/metal and at least one song sounds rooted in 80s glam metal. It seems fitting that guitarist Brian Baker joined the glam metal Junkyard a year after the recording of this album. After Dag Nasty finished touring this album they became more or less a studio band with Dave Smalley on vocals that seems to release an album every ten years.

Download Field Day here

Link now goes to a rapidshare link from another blog.




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