More of that twitchy Texan fun courtesy of Bad Sports, a trio of electric Twizzlers whose members also play in High Tension Wires, The Wax Museums, and the live incarnation of Mind Spiders, which means they do one hell of a mean Denton dance. That’s like being caught in the crossfire of flyin’ 45s and hipster quips, and if you’re not ready to get down, you’re at the wrong damn party. Kings of the Weekend, Bad Sports’ second album, pipes a heaping mess of three-chord punk on top of a fluffy n’ fuzzy 60s garage pop cake and sprinkles lyrics about schizophrenia and high school sweethearts over all of it, so chances are you won’t be able to resist the urge to dive face first into this box of 14 mini rock n’ roll desserts and feast on their addictive confection. Outstanding flavours include the sleaze-infused “Off Switch,” the MC5-drenched “Teenage Girls,” and the ego-driven “I’m in Love With Myself,” but the whole batch is positively charged and tastes bad-ass.
Buy the Ticket is a four song EP from She Rides, Providence, Rhode Island’s drunk tornado of junkyard rock and biker metal, whose label, Rusty Knuckles Records, is home to such hideous outlaws as ANTiSEEN and Crank County Daredevils, so you know the kind of cocaine and gasoline fun you’re gonna get here. It’s been about three years since their self-titled debut, so the fact that there’s only four songs means they had to stuff an awful lot of sleaze into each one of ‘em for maximum effect, and I’ll be damned if the whole thing isn’t as bloated as a dead possum who overdosed on a lethal mix of Ironboss, The Misfits, Peter Pan Speedrock, and Damn 13. Take one Hunter S. Thompson reference, a bunch of nasty riffs, and the words party, piss, and dude, and you’ve got an EP aimed to tickle saggy-titted trailer trash in that special spot usually reserved for their cousin’s greasy shotgun.
The Coathangers Larceny & Old Lace
Suicide Squeeze Records
There is never anything very serious about The Coathangers’ business, which usually involves making one hell of a sarcastic ruckus by fusing no-wave fuss and riot-grrrl attitude, and coming up with song titles like “Don’t Touch My Shit,” “Shut the Fuck Up,” “Nestle in my Boobies,” “Gettin’ Mad and Pumpin’ Iron,” and “Arthritis Sux.” I mean, they’re not called The Coathangers because they like coathangers, ya dig? And having taken what I can only assume was a leap from pre-period girls in bobby socks singing into hair brushes to teenage vandals with pawnshop instruments without any kind of forethought to structuring their craft except having the drunkest fun possible, the Atlanta quartet set ears and hearts afire with their first two albums, 2007′s self-titled debut and 2009′s Scramble, both of which were gratuitously punk and gloriously noisy. But on their latest album, Larceny & Old Lace, The Coathangers’ business is sounding a bit more serious than usual, meaning that while their shrieky farce-ula is still prevalent, they do seem to have grown up a bit (and at the risk of having my hand bit, they’re looking more beautiful than ever, too). Sure, you still get that toaster-in-the-tub rush on songs like “Hurricane,” “Trailer Park Boneyard,” “Sicker,” and “Chicken: 30,” but now there’s also an equal amount of pop/beat-oriented moments courtesy of “Go Away,” “Call to Nothing,” “Jaybird,” and “My Baby.” Oh, and there’s a ballad, too. So, they might not be your same old Coathangers, but they’re still irritatingly awesome and they still have the capacity to be the life of the party.
Check out the video for “Hurricane” from Larceny & Old Lace!
Bad Sports
She Rides
The Coathangers