ALBUM REVIEW: TNSrecords Volume 4: Cheap Cans Broken Vans + Basement Bar Bands (TNSrecords)
Manchester-based DIY punk label TNSrecords has been releasing prime slices of underground noise since 2008, and decided to mark its landmark 100th release with a very special compilation.
That’s quite apt, as the very first TNS release was a compilation, and they’ve been two more since then, which is why this 33-track offering is volume four.
It wanted a release representing its whole time as a label and something that involved lots of members of the DIY community, hence this compilation featuring bands both on TNS and from the wider DIY punk community.
Compilations have always been a great way of finding new bands, and that’s certainly the case here. There’s plenty of variety too, with everything from raging hardcore to folk-punk, and just about everything inbetween.
Where to start reviewing such a wide-ranging release? At the start I guess. Leeds hardcore crew Incisions get the juices flowing from the off with New Day, from their split 2020 single with thrashy trio Pizzatramp, who are here too, with the searing I Got Work In The Morning, from their 2019 album Grand Relapse.
Hardcore and post-HC are well-represented, with impressive tracks from Jodie Faster, Brassick, In Evil Hour, The Domestics and Grand Collapse, among others.
Uniforms and Tim Loud fly the flag for melodic punk, while Faintest Idea, Redeemon and Harijan bring the ska-punk to the table, Matilda’s Scoundrels and Roughneck Riot are folk-punk, Speed Dinosaurs have cornered the market in skiffle-punk, and Follow Your Dreams and PI$$ER blur genres sufficiently to defy easy pigeon-holing.
This is no lazy retrospective label sampler either: most of the tracks are from the last couple of years, with eight either unreleased or only previously available digitally. This includes I Got You by garage rock trio Nosebleed, the blistering Freedom From by The Restarts and You Can Only Try Your Best, by TNS founder (and ex-Revenge Of The Psychotronic Man shouter) Andy Davies’ latest band Knife Club (whose debut album is reviewed here).
Everyone will have their own favourite tracks; I love State O’Yer by Manchester scamps Aerial Salad, who bring the spirit of ’77 to the ’20s (their last album Dirt Mall is reviewed here), and the wonderfully bonkers I’m A Cat by Cornish h/c crew Bobby Funk (whose debut album you can read about here). But there’s nothing I’d skip here.
Cheap Cans, Broken Vans and Basement Bar Bands is available on double 12in gatefold vinyl (one record pink, the other silver) and digipak CD. A T-shirt, zine and jigsaw are also available as part of a bundle, direct from TNSrecords HERE. Check out their impressive back catalogue while you’re there. And here’s to the next 100 releases! 9/10.
TNS100 Track List
Incisions – New Day
Jodie Faster – Don’t Take It Bad
Brassick – They Say
Faintest Idea – Stomp Them Down
Nosebleed – I Got You (previously unreleased)
Aerial Salad – State O’Yer
In Evil Hour – 2050 (previously only released digitally)
The Restarts – Freedom From (previously unreleased)
Haest – The Turtle Is in the Handbag
Roughneck Riot – A New Day Is Dawning (previously unreleased)
Knife Club – You Can Only Try Your Best (previously unreleased)
Bobby Funk – I’m A Cat
Harijan – Paranoid
Youth Avoiders – Steel Concrete
PI$$ER – Time
Martyrials – Parachute
Uniforms – Searchlights
Grand Collapse – Turncoat
Casual Nausea – Empty Rewards
Pizzatramp – I Got Work In The Morning
Stöj Snak – Fire
The Sewer Cats – Rich Cheaters
The Domestics – Don’t Tell Me What Love Is
Tim Loud – Anyone Else But Me (previously only released digitally)
Skinny Milk – Here It Comes
Daves – I Drank The Beer
Follow Your Dreams – Rinse and Repeat
Matilda’s Scoundrels – Heathen
Rash Decision – The Martockian
Christmas – Push Fast
Throwing Stuff – A.C.I.Y.H.A.B. (previously only released digitally)
Redeemon – Anaphylactic
Speed Dinosaurs – Stegasaurids (previously released on digital album)
