Apparently this Bo Gritz lot live in the same half a city as I do, and presumably must have frequented some of the same places at some point. Perhaps some of them have played in some other bands that I may or may not have seen at some point, but I don’t think I’m familiar with any of them, as far as I’m aware. This is hardly surprising - I know very few people around town these days, and have a poor memory besides. Perhaps I’d recognise one or more of them if I saw a photo? Or perhaps not.

Well, never mind. Point is: of all the endless, minute variations of bad-tempered, hopeless noise-rock that exist in the world right now, Bo Gritz - on the basis of this cassette release at least - play one of the few that I actually want to listen to.

Which is to say: the guitar sometimes sounds like a demonically possessed analogue radio that’s come to life and started attacking people, the bass is content to lurk shadily in the background, a hooligan under a tree in a nocturnal park, whilst the drums thud away in exhausted, groovelessly utilitarian fashion, rather like Simon King of Hawkwind reaching his own personal dead-end after X hours of LSD fuelled battery. None of the players display any flash whatsoever. No time-changes, no ‘look-we're-tight’ turn-around bits, no twiddly riffs - it’s just pure ug. Simple, beautiful idiot-rock, laced with a bit of Messthetics bend n’ scrape.

There are vocals in there too I suppose – potentially snarled down the same drain-pipe that used to belong to Jim Shepard or The Heads, more recently liberated from City Yelps – whilst the four track tape recording keeps that nasty treble in check and helps to bake the band’s potentially upsetting, bulbous aggro down into a warm and nourishing aural porridge.

Wherever you are in the world and whatever you’re up to, chances are there is rain and cold and aggravation and petty bullshit on the horizon before long. This is the sound of walking straight into it... and subsequently standing on the street like an angry chump, refusing to admit that you went the wrong way and ballsed everything up. (Hey, it happens.)

If you do tapes, well you can no longer do this one because it’s sold out. Stream and download from here.

Labels: Bo Gritz, EP reviews, I like, tapes