Bazooka - Φυλακή (Prison)

  Greek bands are very much a rarity on here, although I did recently feature Burnt Tapes (though they had to move to London before I noticed them!). I was recently pointed in the direction of a band from Athens called Bazooka and I liked what I heard. A bit about them : They formed in 2008 and line up with Xanthos Papanikolaou (vocals/guitar), John Vulgaris (drums/percussion), Aris Rammos (bass) and Vasilis Tzelepis (guitar). Described as being Athens' greatest punk live act right now they play a mix of punk and post-punk with lots of 60's influences. Originally from Volos they made the move to Athens to pick up live gigs and they haven't looked back. They released their debut Self Titled album on Slovenly Recordings in 2013, followed it up in 2016 with Useless Generation and then last month released album number 3, Zero Hits. It's on Inner Ear Records and you can get it on vinyl here :                                                                                                                               http://inner-ear.gr/catalogue/artist/bazooka/zero-hits/  

 Digitally it's available on Bandcamp : https://bazooka-innerear.bandcamp.com/album/zero-hits

  They'll be touring round Europe in April and dates will be posted here :  https://www.facebook.com/bazookagreece/

  I need to give the album a proper listen but from what I've heard so far it's an inventive mix of genres. It's got riffs, psychedelia, even funky beats in place. Definitely one to check out for those of you that like your punk to traverse genre boundaries. This song came with a video so is highlighted today, it's a modern sounding, fast paced post-punk tale of life behind bars called Φυλακή (Prison)....

Κλείνει ο φύλακας 
το φως 
Πέφτω στο κρεβάτι 
Άλλη μια μέρα πέρασε 
Που δεν ήτανε γεμάτη 
Ίσως όλοι, ίσως όλοι, 
ίσως όλοι να είναι εκεί 
Μα εγώ περνάω μια 
χαρά μες στη φυλακή 
Βιαστές, παιδεραστές, 
μπάτσοι, αναρχικοί 
Ετοιμάζουν ένα κόλπο 
στο διπλανό κελί στη 
φυλακή 
Αυτοί δίπλα μου 
κολλάνε 
Θέλουν να τους κάνω 
μια δουλειά 
Μου δίνουν ένα όπλο 
στα κρυφά 
Να πάω να σκοτώσω 
τον φύλακα 
Δε ξέρω αν σου αρέσει 
που είσαι έξω στη ζωή 
Μα εμένα μου αρέσει 
πολύ στη φυλακή 
Κάνω βόλτες στην αυλή 
και γυμναστική 
Ρεύμα τσάμπα, 
εγκληματίες και έχει 
και φαί 
Βάζω την καρδιά μου 
σε μπουκάλι περιμένω 
Να το βρεις και να 
το ανοίξεις μα το φως 
είναι σβησμένο 
Με το στόμα με τα 
χείλη με τα δόντια 
δάγκωσέ το 
Δάγκωσέ το για να 
ανοίξει δεν μπορώ να 
περιμένω 

*** 
The guard closes the 
light 
I go to bed 
One more day passed 
Which wasn’t full 
Maybe everyone is 
there 
But I’m going through a 
joy inside the prison 
Rapists, pedophiles, 
cops, anarchists 
They are getting ready 
for a trick in the next 
cell 
These guys next door 
are bothering me 
They want to do a job 
for them 
They secretly give me 
a gun 
To go and kill the 
guard 
I don’t know if you like 
it out in the life 
But I like it a lot in the 
prison 
I walk around the prison 
yard and exercise 
I have electricity for 
free, criminals, and 
food for free 
I put my heart in a 
bottle and I’m waiting 
For you to find and 
open it, but the light 
is closed 
With your mouth, your 
lips, your teeth bite it 
Bite it and open it I 
can’t wait no more