REVIEW: The Kendolls - Diablo Gringo 7"

THE KENDOLLS – Diablo Gringo EP
7inch | Alleycat Records | 4 Songs - 11:39 minutes | www.thekendolls.bandcamp.com

Being a German I was always confused when I read the slogan of this Swedish band, cuz I always read THEKEN DOLLS (which means something like "bar dolls" in German) instead of THE KENDOLLS. So I always had the "bar-connection" instead of the "Barbie-connection" with this band, haha...

But that's not totally wrong, cuz the 4 songs on this EP could excellently serve as a soundtrack for a wild night at your local booze-shack. Actually you can also do some excellent knuckle-fighting to this platter, cuz these Swedes seem to be veeeery angry!

I only listened to their "Jerking Class Era" CD once and from that I was expecting some quite good but "standard" Scandinavian Punk'n'Roll, if ya know what I mean...But I was kinda positively surprised that THE KENDOLLS sound so aggressive on this EP. They really have something like a raw Hardcore-Punk edge here, combined with a certain feel of TRBNGR-deathpunk and/or POISON IDEA-ish darkness. Cool, I really like that!

But after all they still write good songs, so don't forget to listen to those tiny melodies here and there and their snotty Garage-catchyness, while thrashing your room, haha...

-bernd

REVIEW: Tough - Four LP

TOUGH – Four
LP | Monster Zero | 13 Songs - 17:01 minutes | www.facebook.com/ToughPunkRock

I didn't know this band before, but after 30 seconds of listening to this record I knew they were from Italy, haha! Okay, one quick look in the info-sheet says that we have one guy here who was in the STINKING POLECATS and another guy who was in THE POPSTERS before. Those two bruddas just added another Italian Poppunk-devotee to their line-up and out came a classic RAMONEScore-threepiece.

The first song starts out like a straight forward RIVERDALES tune, the second song sounds a lil bit like THE APERS and these guys keep shredding like this through the whole album. Well, it's kinda the same beat and the same chord-shredding over and over again, so if you're not really devoted to the Poppunk-genre this might not really thrill you. But all in all TOUGH do a good job here. I don't really need the cover-versions on the album ("Pleasant Valley Sunday" by THE MONKEES and "I Get Around" by THE BEACH BOYS) but there are also some cool rippers ("It's alright then" or "Your Bloody End") on this platter... And I think they needed tunes to fill up the playing-time of the record, cuz it's only 17 minutes long, haha... No prisoners to be taken!

A good genre-record with Italian accent! My Poppunk-addicted wife voted 7 out of 10 points for this album. It seems as if the guitarist left the band recently, so we'll see if and how the band will continue in the future.

-bernd

REVIEW: Zatopeks - About Bloody Time CD/LP

ZATOPEKS – About Bloody Time
CD/LP | Monster Zero | 12 Songs - 36:05 minutes | www.facebook.com/zatopeks

Uh, this is a tough one... You know... I always liked the ZATOPEKS. And I really loved all their live-shows! Monobrow-Poppunk to the max!!! Now I have their album here and ... I dunno... It's actually a good album. But maybe my expectations were too high?!? I think that kinda describes my situation with the new ZATOPEKS album. It's still the ZATOPEKS, they still have good songs. But there are no real "hits" on this platter... Nothing that really sticks to my ear...

Maybe it's just a "coming of age" thing... Personally I can say that I just grew out of this Poppunk-sound a little bit. Years ago I was really a freak for this music, when we were still with that ratpack that was travelling around with our friends of the BACKWOOD CREATURES, FAVORATS and BATTLEDYKES. But times changed, bands split up, and it's just natural that you listen to some other music today as you did 10 or 15 years ago.

But I always had and still have my Poppunk-favorites and the ZATOPEKS always were on of them. So what to do now? Being disappointed about an album that is "just good" (still better than 80% of everything that calls itself Poppunk today) but not the über-hit I expected? Or just wait for the next show: Drinking beer and pogo-dancing all nite long with the ZATOPEKS on stage!

I think I choose the latter ...  And everything will be fine again... ;)

And for sure: With a little time you get more into this album! Coz an important thing about the ZATOPEKS is of course the lyrical content that gave me a lot of cheerful moments. If you think Poppunk is music for dummies just read the lyric-sheets of the ZATOPEKS! Great work! They even work with footnotes and references to famous dead poets. Hats off! And the coverart by Stefan Stardumb is also great, of course!

Bottom line: If you're into Poppunk you should definitely check out this album. Maybe it's not their best but still a good one! I also played it to my Poppunk-addicted wife (cuz she might be a better judge for this music than me) and she voted 7 out of 10 points on our inofficial Three-chord-scale. That ain't bad, huh?!?

-bernd