The Abominable Snow Punks
The Abominable Snow Punks Cometh!
Sweatload
Ahh, the year’s first great debut album from a serious new punk rock band. Three chords mixed with ritual Eskimo howling. This is a six-song EP, all of which have tremendous potential for a great career in punk rock, provided the band doesn’t do something stupid like play a big festival in the Sahara desert.
I’ll start off by saying expect the stupid. These folks (four guys on guitar, bass, mandolin, and vox; and a young lady on drums) dress up in heavy-duty costumes that look like bleached gorilla suits. According to the liner notes, the band prefers to play outdoor shows during the long Alaskan winters, so the costumes serve a dual purpose, that is, they look “punk” and keep the guys warm. So much for the “stoopid” aspect. Musically, they’re a lot like classic punk bands of the early 1980s, e.g., the Numb Boys.
Like the good old punk rock bands, the Abominable Snow Punks, working on their gimmick appeal, write songs about the strange life one must have in Alaska. There’s “Sex with a Sleeping Polar Bear,” the lyrics of which were drawn from a recent newspaper story and “Mukluk,” an upbeat tune about big shoes. I look forward to their full-length release, which should complete recording in April.
Sweatload Records, 44 Incompetence St., Rayleigh Distribution, NC 07506
