The Shemps
Spazz Out With The Shemps
Reservation Records
Here’s a band that has the punk sound and ethos down pat. These six guys arrive with reasonable punk credentials, having played in bands even Google hasn’t heard of, and one of them took the time to go to the orient to pick up some crispy clean line artwork for the CD case. There are 17 songs here, each pretty much a high speed post-Ramones drum line filled in with speed guitar, cranked up bass and the occasion sound of a keyboard crashing to the floor.
All the songs have good, interesting lyrics, and you can nearly understand them even without the densely printed liner notes. Occasional bits of songs you’ve heard elsewhere creep in. Oh look, there goes some “Hand Jive!” Was that the intro from “All Day, All Night?” Well, if you’re going to steal material, steal from the best. There’s some stuff about a satanic orgy and talking to the neighbors’ cat, but mostly we get the usual love songs played at 99 and 1/9 rpm. Even the press release is pretty cool; it recommends thinking twice before hiring the band, and not wasting your time reading any further.
I have but one minor complaint: each song on this disc appears to have the last half second or so clipped off the end. I’m not sure if that’s intentional, a weird artifact of the pressing, or some lame-ass protection scheme that my computer doesn’t notice. It’s minor, and this band makes me type faster than anything else in my rotation. Go for it.
Reservation Records: http://www.reservationrecords.com • The Shemps: http://www.theshemps.com
