EP REVIEW: The Puncturists – The Punk Tourists (Dead Swan Records)
The Puncturists are a new band comprising three past and present members of Barnsley’s dark punk noisemakers System Of Hate.
They are SOH bassist Pat Crawford on guitar, original SOH drummer Carl Gulliford, live SOH keyboard player Tony Jackson on bass, and Gail Townsend on some vocals.
Their sound is very different indeed to SOH’s brooding racket, and much more like conventional ’77-style punk.
With seven tracks this debut offering – recorded in just one day – is more than an EP, but not quite a full album, but it’s replete with observational songs about the state of broken Britain.
To lying MPs and PMs and their blatant cronyism to the way ordinary people are treated like something the elite have found on the bottom of their well-heeled shoes, it offers some powerful food for thought.
Things kick off with Jackanory Johnson, a scathing takedown of the straw-haired buffoon whose antics might have been mildly amusing if he hadn’t been in charge of the country during a worldwide pandemic which killed tens of thousands.
The release also ends with a swipe at MPs generally in Politicians Lie, which has a great bassline and rounds things off with a swagger.
In between, the band ruminate on the joys of forgetting about the 9-5 grind by getting Wankered At The Weekend, confessing: “I work all week, to drink so I can’t speak.”
A Swan Can Break Your Arm* offers some light relief among the otherwise fairly serious subject matter, with lines like “He is owned by The Queen/he’s hard as nails and strong and mean”.
(Come to think of it, The Puncturists seem a bit obsessed with swans – check out the cover of this release and the name of their DIY label which has released The Punk Tourists.)
But for me the best two tracks are the pair which tackle the sheer boredom and hopelessness of living in a crap town, surrounded by people you despise.
I Hate Living In A Place Like This is fairly self-explanatory, as is I Just Want To Die Of Death In My Sleep.
Let’s face it, if a punk band can’t find anything meaningful to write about amid the seemingly never-ending Tory shitstorm, rising cost of living and everything else that’s gone on in the last couple of years, they’re not really trying, are they?
Luckily, The Puncturists are trying, and they’re doing it well. If the songs here are anything to go by, I look forward in due course to seeing what they can do over a full-length release.
The Punk Tourists is available on limited run CD and digital download from The Puncturists Bandcamp page HERE.
*Wildlife experts say it’s highly unlikely that a swan can break a person’s arm, unless it gets really angry while protecting its nests and you’re not bright enough to run away.
