The Dops - Merry-Go-Round

 

  Another day, another band that are heavily influenced by The Ramones. Life is good.

  The Dops are an old school pop punk band from Kharkiv, Ukraine. I think they've been together for a couple of years and looking at the rather splendid Ramones Medley video that they put out there appears to be three of them in the band although Facebook only lists two; Pavel Terebuntsev (lead vocals/guitar) and Vlad Nikolaenko (bass/backing vocals). Here's the Ramones Medley video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqPQ6EsFwcQ

  In January they released their debut ep, Shucks! It features the single, Friday Night and a cover of The Ramones' Rockaway Beach, amongst it's 8 tracks. You can check it out on Bandcamp (where you'll also find the Ramones Medley) https://thedops.bandcamp.com/track/ramones-medley

  Now they're set to conquer the Western Hemisphere. The ep has been picked up by the excellent Outloud! label who have the cd version now available : http://outloudrecords.bandcamp.com/album/shucks

  This is a catchy little number called Merry-Go-Round......

 

Batfoot! - At The Alley

  Batfoot! are your typical American old school pop punk band reminiscent of the likes of Kobanes or early Teenage Bottlerocket etc. Fast paced, fun, with often wonderfully juvenile lyrics. They write songs about girls being psychopaths, being down in the basement, staying off work, girls being "the one" etc. Everything we've come to love from this sort of Ramones loving U.S. breed of band. The surprising thing is, they're from Sydney, Australia. And they're bloody good.

  Featuring Craig (bass/vocals), Justin (guitar/vocals), Jimmy (drums) and Luke (guitar/vocals), they've been together since 2008 and they've a bunch of releases over on Bandcamp for you to check out :  https://batfoot.bandcamp.com/album/

  Their latest album, one of the best of the year so far, is out now on Atomic Brain Records (Aus/NZ) and Bloated Kat Records (North America/Europe/Asia). Here's a song from it, At The Alley.....

Stiletto Bomb - Screaming From The Bottom

 

I'm very happy that I can bring you an exclusive today, the song I'm posting below is appearing online for the first time so I'd like to thank Jay for allowing a small blog that's nothing more than a labour of love hobby the chance to debut it.

  Some of you may remember that I posted a song called Ampgrinder a while back. It was the calling card of Stiletto Bomb and I predicted it would end up being one of 2015's best tracks. Now, very impressively, they've added another 5 tracks to it, and it's part of their debut ep, In The Dark. Rather pleasingly every track's a winner and my early prediction is going to be spot on. It's due out on Mooster Records on 7 August but you can pre-order it here : https://stilettobomb.bandcamp.com/releases

  The band, for those who haven't already discovered them, features J & Matty Prozac (The Prozacs) and Scotty & J Blood (The Uncomfortables/Pajama Slave Dancers). Possibly the most pleasing aspect of the band however is that Jay's recruited his wife, Andy Nihilate as co vocalist and their duelling vocals, combined with the fast tempo tunes and catchy as hell choruses make me declare that this could well turn out to be his best work yet.

  An adrenaline rush of a song, this is Screaming From The Bottom......

Give it everything you've got
your heart, your soul
sometimes it's not enough
and it keeps us wondering...

If there's even a point
a time or place
where things will balance out
or at least seem worthwhile

I hate these feelings of depression and despair
it's a disease runs deep it's rotting at the core
it's something in our hearts we just can't let it go
the blood, the sweat, the tears
we call it rock and roll

We're screaming from the bottom one more time
we'll give it all we've got
we're screaming from the bottom one last time 
we're never gonna stop 

The Bat Bites - Tomorrow

 
On the back of a long discussion about the merits of modern music and whether there's anything new and exciting being produced or is it just a pale imitation of past glories that's background noise to a generation of uninterested x boxers and i phoners, the song I'm posting today is just a catchy "pop" song that isn't pushing any boundaries or won't catch the attention of 99.99999% of the planet but is, to my grizzled old ears, a bloody good tune.
  Featuring Rotterdam quartet Merel, Mikey, Flow and Ivo , The Bat Bites have been together since 2008 and yeah, they're inspired by music of a bygone era but they have the happy knack of churning out catchy as fuck, pop punk music with just enough of a (bat) bite to keep it a notch above most of their contemporaries. 2009 saw the release of debut ep Creatures Of The Night, this was followed by a free ep called Take It, It's Free but their new self titled album has seen them really raise the bar. It won't be to the taste of every punk fan out there, but if you fancy a listen to something upbeat and feel good, check it out....  http://thebatbites.bandcamp.com/

 This is the lead track, and one that's been lodged in my head for ages, it's called Tomorrow......

The Simpletones - I Have A Date

Ah, young love, ain't it great. Today's song was covered by The Vandals but was originally by The Simpletones, a band from Rosemead, California, who formed in 1978 and disbanded barely 2 years later after releasing a classic single, California/I Like Drugs. There was also an album released in 1979 on Posh Boy Records called Beach Blvd which featured 9 Simpletones songs as well as 5 by Rik L Rik and 4 by The Crowd. A compilation album collecting together all their stuff and entitled I Have A Date was released in 2002, hunt it down if you want to hear some classic early pop punk. This is the title track and it's one of the best of its type.....

I saw a girl and she drove me wild
She looked at me and I looked and smiled
The cutest girl you could ever see
I never dreamed she'd go out with me

We met at school so I asked her out
The only girl I ever thought about
Shes 16 and she's so divine
I never thought I would make her mine

I'm in love, I just cant wait, tonight, I have a date
(I have a date) with the cutest girl in town
(I have a date) and I'm the happiest boy around
I'm in love, I just cant wait, tonight, I have a date

Went to the movies in my parents car
I never dreamed I would get that far
I picked her up at a quarter to 8
I got there early didn't wanna be late

I never thought it would come to this
I drove her home and she gave me a kiss
I'm in love and it's here to stay
She says she really wants to see me again

I'm in love, I just cant wait, tonight I have a date
(I have a date) with the cutest girl in town
(I have a date) and I'm the happiest boy around
I'm in love, I just cant wait, tonight I have a date

I have a date(x4)

I'm in love, I just cant wait, tonight, I have a date
I have a date

The Snazzy Boys - They Came from Outer space !!!

Trawling the net for far too many hours seeking out punk songs to add to the blog I come across a hell of a lot of music. Much of it, I'm not keen on so it just gets a quick listen (possibly too quick, leading to me to dismiss it too hastily) but on occasion I find nuggets of gold (quite possibly nuggets that have been mined by many others already but are new to me). I've got to be honest, if I see what looks like upbeat pop punk with a sci-fi theme, I'll probably give it a slightly more generous crack of the whip. It's a rich genre, going back as far as The Rezillos and Spizz Energi (probably further than that) and including a lot of my favourite bands (hello Lillingtons, Dan Vapid etc). Today's song is from Italy's The Snazzy Boys. Formed in 2005 in Ospitaletto, they don't seem to be around anymore, splitting in 2010 (though I would love to be wrong about this), they were influenced by all the right groups, The Damned, The Boys, The Lurkers, The Spits, The Briefs etc, and play a '77 style of upbeat pop punk that has just the right combination of killer tunes and bite. Their releases include a couple of 7"'s, Organized Octopus (2006) and the Play Your Bollocks ep (2007) as well as a self titled album (2009). If you like quality retro pop punk, treat your ears, this is They Came From Outer Space.....

Toy Dolls - Molly Was Immoral

A quick update today before i start the not very eagerly anticipated job of moving all my stuff from one house to another. The Toy Dolls are well known to most punk fans, they've been turning out quality humorous ditties since their formation in 1979. Their biggest hit was about an elephant called Nellie but this song was from 2012's The Album After The Last One and concerns a love triangle on cobbled northern streets. This is Molly was immoral.....

The Lillingtons - Phantom Maggot

Possibly a good idea to always update this blog when sober, but sometimes after a few stellas and then several vodkas you start listening to the old classics and think that needs posting up. So, from what's probably become my favourite ever album (The Lillingtons - Death By Television), this is Phantom Maggot.
 thank you to whoever put all the awesome lyric videos from this album on youtube, sterling work my friend.


enjoy.......