Fast paced, ballsy, attitude-fuelled punk music

[Ist]
Toothpick Bridge
Album
No Label

THIS is one of those album’s that could so easily be thrown into the wayside through a misinterpretation as the saying ‘never judge a book by it’s cover’ rings true. A silly name, a daft cover (simply the image of a young girl and - that’s it!) and the opening notes of first song ‘The Boy’s Not Right’ makes the band seem like a second rate Proclaimers tribute act but oh, how these early songs are so wrong.


For the opener gathers pace after twenty seconds and soon erupts into one of the fastest guitar rhythms you will have heard for a long time. Throw in a speedy drumbeat and add a vocalist born to be in a punk band and you have a group who were born after their time. For their fast paced, ballsy, attitude-fuelled punk music would not have looked out of place in the late seventies amongst the vocal sounds of the Ramones and the guitar onslaughts of The Clash. In fact, they borrow absolutely nothing from today’s current music scene to create a sensational punk record except for when they progress punk’s early sound to create an album for a brand new kind of revolution.


When they are running through the kind of smoky old fast paced guitar chord tracks as ‘Pep Talk’ and the brilliant ’Rebecca,’ they are only just as good as when they show a little touch of creativity in such tracks as ‘ A Scotsman In A Church’ and ’Headache,’ the latter a divine gently toned down stick-a-finger-up-at-the-world anti establishment ballad.

[Ist] take the classic sounds of old 70s punk heroes, throw in the attitude of The Sex Pistols and add in the same kind of fun that Bullets And Octane bring across in every record to create the most audacious yet sensational album that you will hear all year.
The band ooze attitude and style and can pull of their classic ‘rock and roll’ moments just as well as their straight-edged ballads, the juxtapose of ’Would You Buy A Bible From This Man’ and the quick-smart guitar driven ’Remington Steele’ being a fantastic example of the band’s diversity.

Essentially what you have with ’Toothpick Bridge’ is not just one of the finest punk albums of the 21st century but one of the finest punk albums that have ever been recorded. Even if you play it before you stick on The Ramone’s greatest hits album somehow, it sounds just as good, if not better!
Released: Out Now!

For Fans of: The Ramones, the Clash, Bullets and Octane