It’s taken me far too long to get around to giving this a proper airing and a thorough inspection, but while the new neighbours are thumping the walls with an array of shit metal and even shitter dance, it seems like the lowdown sleazeoid groove of Damn Vandals is the perfect antidote to drown it all out with. And it is: single ‘Twist Up and Tangle’ is a scuzzy, balls-out riff-driven snarler and sets both the tone and the tempo: ‘Cities of a Plastic World’ is gloriously ragged, gritty surf-punk with the sleaze cranked up to eleven, The Stranglers’ ‘Peaches’ for the 21st century. Low-slung blues rocker ‘Too Lazy To Die Too Stoned to Live’ is all about the snakin’ bass groove and oozes chemical perspiration.
The album’s longest track by far, at a comparatively indulgent 4:53, ‘I Bring You Love’ finds the Vandals coming on like ‘LA Woman’ era Doors, only more fucked and groggy sounding. ‘Whisky Going Free’ speaks – or more accurately, hollers and whoops – for itself, with a full pint burning in its belly.
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‘Mad as Hell’ shivers and shakes, barelling in all guns blazing somewhere between The Cramps and The Stooges, the raw-throated vocal being the defining feature. ‘This music blows my tiny mind,’ Jack Kansas hollers like Danzig with a switchblade between his shoulders on, yes, ‘This Music Blows My Tiny Mind’, which segues into ‘Rocket Over London’, that draws the album to a suitably explosive finale, the blues groove swagger reaching critical mass.
Damn Vandals really are that mythical band that inject new life into rock ‘n’ roll. Short and to the point, beefy, and with just the right amount of cool-as-fuck arrogance, they’re the real deal, and ‘Rocket Out Of London’ is absolutely stonking: a rocket up the arse of the music scene.
Damn Vandals Online
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