Labels: Rumblestrip
Review by: Ian Cavell
Rumblestrip’s latest release is an absolutely gorgeous split 7″ between Japanese emotional punker’s Lovemen and Newcastle’s favourate pop punk combo, Servo. Oddly enough Rumblestrip have opted for that ‘big holed’ 7″ format that turns up from time to time. Which meant I had to spend the best part of an hour looking for the little circular piece of black plastic that came with the turntable before I could listen to the thing. Worth the wait though? Definitely!
First up are the Lovemen who can be summed up in just two words : FUCKING AMAZING! Two awesome songs that are just so much better than anything on the last album – especially the 2nd song which just blows me away. Think melodic punk, “Snuffy” style, with lovely jangly guitar parts (note : not emo) and catchy chorus sing-a-longs. Lyrics still get a little muddled (examples : “a man changes expression” and “I go to town of daybreak of grey, with no face”) but you can work out what they mean (most of the time anyway). One day these guys will write an album that matches the quality of this 7″ and that of the older Rugger Bugger split. When that day arrives they will be hailed (by me) as the best band Japan has ever seen. Until then Blew gets to keep the badge but I’ll still be playing the 7″s.
Servo have the honour of gracing the b-side (or AA if you wanna be pedantic). And they do a fine job too. A lot of people really seem to hate this band but I don’t know how anyone can fail to appreciate catchy pop-punk when it’s done this well. And the people who do like them always compare them to Discount which is also very odd because they have little in common bar the fact that both bands have a girl on vocals. Are we that short of female fronted bands that we have to stretch comparisons to extremes? Anyway, both tracks are good, the 2nd is slightly more melodic and earns itself a bigger chunk of my respect. I’m gonna go and change my top 10 records of this year because there is no way this is gonna miss out.