This whole scummy rock'n'roll business demands our best bands have a gimmick to make them stand out of the crowd if they want anything pertaining to longevity. It's clearly a rule Croydon's DO ME BAD THINGS have taken on board: when all around them are dressing down and trying to compete with the new breed of post-punkers like Bloc Party and The Rakes, they're pushing a nine-piece line-up, blamming out riffs Aerosmith would pray to Mecca for and knocking around answering to DSS-bothering names like Chantal Delusional, Hurricane Tommy and Kimberley Diamonde.
And, when it works, their unlikely bid for world domination via debut album "Yes!" is undoubtedly enough to convert you to their daffily brilliant cause. One-time single "Time For Deliverance" kicks off and remains a rough-house par excellence. Its' mauling punk-metal riffs hook you in and finds the magnificent Chantal Delusional trading vox with Nicolai Prowse (his real name, apparently) while the band weigh in with some wickedly well-drilled piledriver rock. It's pummelling, industrial-strength fun, catchier than a barbed wire fence and basically a blast by anyone's standards.
They follow up in equally frantic fashion with "The Song Rides." Once again we're treated to Guns'n'Roses-style riffage, the coolest of vocal arrangements and a song structure that has no problem with getting dreamy and expansive one moment and booting down yer door the next. It's a tad schizophrenic, but when it's this exhilarating, who the hell's complaining, right?
The trouble is, while all of this is liable to get DMBT noticed for sure, the sheer eclecticism can sometimes become formulaic in itself. Certainly the likes of "Sprezzatura" and "Off The Hook" showcase Chantal Delusional's splendidly sultry and acrobatic vocals (a thing of wonder it itself), but the band's penchant for widdlesome guitar overload and tendency towards bombast can just as easily derail them and all of a sudden some of the details - like Hurriacane Tommy's apparent ongoing love affair with his cowbell - starts to really piss you off.
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Ultimately, "Yes!" ends up irritating and enlightening in roughly equal measures. You marvel at the fact recent single "What's Hideous" can find room for Chantal's super-soulful vocals and still come on like Aerosmith, the Chili Peppers and Bill Withers within three minutes and steal your heart into the bargain, while you go on to tear your hair out when "Suburban Flame" succumbs to all-out fretwankery. "The Daily Grind", meanwhile, goes one better, by getting you onside with its' super-dumb riffing and Nicolai's gravelly vocals before throwing it away with numerous grandiose false endings in a bid to be epic. Doh!
Do Me Bad Things have surely left no stone unturned (or forgotten the kitchen sink) in their strenuous effort to cover all bases. Accordingly, "Yes!" is too unwieldy to convince utterly, but - in recommended doses - still makes like the loopiest of parties in town worth gatecrashing.
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