If there's one thing I'm always hungry for it's a proper New York Punk album the way they used to make them. There seems to have been no shortage of these lately. Mystery Lights, who I witnessed playing a blistering set last Thursday night at Cluny 2 in Newcastle, an experience I'll have to write about soon. But also Beechwood, Parquet Courts, Bodega and umpteen others. Punks not dead. Even now apparently.
And now Wives, from Queens arrive at the party with So Removed, their debut album, a record brimful of 'attitood' that is both instantly familiar and invitingly fresh, an indication that these ingredients still have plenty to offer. The wall of sound guitar assault, pounding drums, the full on relentless attack, waves of massed, desperate vocals, all present and correct. None of what's on show here will come as a surprise to anyone who has ever bought a Heartbreakers, Suicide, Ramones or Voidoids record but that's not to say those who have won't welcome this record with open arms.
Wives calling card is hardly originality but there's plenty of conviction and spark on show. With a sound that encompasses the first CBGBs wave of bands but also sprinkles Velvet Underground, Jim Carroll, Sonic Youth, Pixies, Band of Susans and many more of the usual suspects liberally into the mix. The whole record is played out in the wired drama of the Manhattan night, steam rising from the manholes and no lack of menace and dread on show. Pure New York.
The pace is pretty much relentless. You may feel you need to come up for air on occasion. All in all though So Removed is a pretty much an unqualified success. Its just fabulous to see so many bands seeking to breath new life into this golden chapter of musical history and succeeding with such abandon, swagger and fire.
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