Four Letter Word
A Nasty Piece of Work
BYO
I know this will sound weird, but what if Big Country (remember them? If you’re under twenty I don’t think it’s possible… ) and Agnostic Front formed a supergroup? The result would be this intense, yet totally melodic, Welsh punk rock band that’s all about the Revolution!
The album’s liner notes are particularly telling in their story about a hate note to the band (“Would you guys do the world a favour… split up, please”) written on a fresh corpse! Brrrrr! To amplify the revolutionary punk, each song is prefaced by a profound quote from a prominent historical personality, ranging from Teddy Roosevelt to Frederick Douglas to Johnny Rotten. And each song could be a history lesson in itself; for example, “The Gunpowder Plot” calls for the overthrow of the English government through a re-telling of the origin of Guy Fawkes Day. My favorite song is “Rich White Ghetto,” which is strangely American. It has this wonderful chorus of “Let’s go down to the Rich White Ghetto/ Blasting punk, hardcore and metal!” It also advocates pouring asphalt on their lawns, and turning their cars upside down for the express purpose of giving back the hatred spawned by excessive consumerism, etc. Other great songs include “Chemical Sunrise,” that’s a nasty finger-pointing at those who soil the environment, and “Nothing In Return,” probably the most important song, as it’s prefaced by a prophetic George Bernard Shaw quote about people under thirty who think they can solve the world’s problems…
Write the band at 1 Aberdulais Road, Gabalfa, Cardiff, CF4 2PH, Wales, UK. BYO Records, P.O. Box 67A64, Los Angeles, CA 90067; http://www.byorecords.com
