Labels: Squinty Joe
Review by: Andy Malcolm
Goodness, 11 songs and it’s something like 13 minutes long. Grizzley Ends plunge through this CD with an urgent rapidity that Pinhead Gunpowder would be proud of. The music bounces in various directions. The first one even sounds like an ultra poppy Drive Like Jehu had written a particularly short ditty, with charging guitars and urgent vocals. The vocals are a real stand out on here, strained, monotonal, English accent shining through… plenty to like! “She Smells of Sea Shells” is a cracking song and the rest of this CD has trouble living up to it, especially the slower stuff (of which there is not a lot to be honest). The band is definitely at it’s best when cranking it up a notch, with those vocals it definitely feels like a British band, the kind that would have had me very excited in the late 90s / early 00s, prior to the demise of Fracture zine and bands like this ever playing outside of their home town or putting records out that anyone heard.
If you remember and still enjoy the past output of Crackle Records, or bands like Otherwise after they got over their mid 90s Fat Wreck Chords obsession, then the Grizzley Ends will be well up your street guvnor. All pop punk chug, energy, 20 minute sets, no pointless encore, drunken all dayers, fuck you very much, Vanilla Pod are on next, thanks a lot to Pylon for playing tonight and to Out of Spite for putting us on!