On the one hand I want to applaud these hard rockin’, hard lookin’, barroom brawlin’, road-tested babes for playing some dynamite hardcore Oi! music, and on the other, I ask myself questions about them covering Screwdriver (they play “I Don’t Like You”).
Be that as it may, Man’s Ruin are the real thing; indeed, their creed is “We can out drink, out fight and out fuck all y’all,” a statement I believe after listening to “Come a Little Closer,” which asks the musical question “If I asked you, would you be true, could you be my love slave?” with the chorus of “Make me wet boy/ Fuck me hard boy.” They’re very serious about cruising the bars for young boys to corrupt and “teach.” For instance, on “Half My Age Plus Seven Years,” they sing about finding a young, strong boy, under twenty-one who’s a good protector, yet hasn’t been ruined by other women. Then there’s “True Love,” in which all the men they’re slept with are mentioned by name: Sam Adams, John Courage, Samuel Smith, Wicked Pete… (I got the joke… )
On the subject of their keen sense of humor, I believe they give away that they really aren’t a bunch of truck stop sluts who beat up men on the song “Cider Woman.” While the lyrics warn about a drunken maniac, everyone knows that Cider Woman is the arch-nemesis of the Brown Bottle, the wino superhero of Viz magazine. Thus, they reveal a certain sophistication in borrowing from an English humor magazine for inspiration.
For those who can’t get enough Oi!, Man’s Ruin is just the ticket. For people like me, I think the girls should contact Ink Nineteen and let me know when they’ll be in town. We can go out and get to know each other. (I love sophisticated and hard punk babes who dress in leopard spot spandex). GMM Records, P.O. Box 15234, Atlanta, GA 30333
