It’s not too often on a life time that a band comes along that grabs you by the scruff of the neck, or some other bit of your anatomy, and bids you “come with me my friend” on a journey that you just never want to get off. Now I’m a very old music listener and live music fan, so yes there are many artists that have given me the very same kind of goose bumps and a kid in a candy shop kind of excitement, but over 50+ years, thousands of gigs and a music collection that needs its own house you’d expect a few. So when Split Dogs crossed my path the whole “fuck, damn this is fucking amazing” thing happened all over again.
After over a year of listening to and loving this bands first album ‘Here To Destroy’, seeing them live on numerous occasion,now its time for that difficult second album to hit the streets, and obviously panic sets in for the fan, in possibly the same way it does for the band. Bcause when you fall for music that’s as good as this, believe me it’s hard to contain the nerves and anticipation when hitting play on track one of a new album for the first time. So when The Clash released Give Em Enough Rope, Green Day moved on to Kerplunk, or Against Me’s released As The Eternal Cowboy, all these moments make getting your hands on Split Dogs ‘Nice N Rough’ just as important.
Now I’ve listened to all thirteen tracks back to back, I’m glad to report, this album FUCKING rocks!……. Oh ok I suppose I’m going to have to let you all in on it am I?, but you know when something is so good you just want to keep it all to yourself. What I can report is that all but one track is under 3 mins long, this is a very important point, as this makes every song a do what you want it to do, deliver a perfect little ball of energy thats leaves you wanting more, thats just how ‘’Be Somebody’ hits your ears, this is Garage Rock n Roll sung and played with a primeval energy that makes you want to be that somebody right there in your room.
When you listen to a band like Split Dogs or any other with this kind of style, its easy to just right them off as a DIY punk band who’s live shows are like a cluster bomb going off and thats it, but this is far beyond the live phenomenon, you just need to take in ‘Born To Lose’, ’Breaker’ and then follow that with ‘Get The Look’. This is a band that has every single element in the right place with just the right amount of perfection, Harry Martinez treats the vocals like they came straight from an AC/DC / Tina Turner bar room brawl, so naturally theatrical too. Then add to that Mil Martinez and a style of guitar that sounds like Mike Ness on acid with a boogie woogie all of its own, with the addition of a Bass and drums played like they were born together as conjoined twins by Suez Boyle and Chris Hugall who complete this unholy perfection of a sound, and we haven’t even gotten to the best songs yet!!
Do any of you remember when Amyl And The Sniffers hit the scene, well take that and multiply it by ten, thats just how good this second album is. Nice N’ Rough should propel Split Dogs into the stratosphere, this is as pure as Rock n Roll as you can cram into vinyl grooves, this needs a fire proof needle and all you can do is hope the record doesn’t melt right before your eyes. Just try putting on ‘Leave It Alone’, ‘Rock N Roll Business’, or ‘Suffer’ without feeling the urge to head bang your way around the room whilst uncontrollably shaking every sinew of your being to to a gooey mess on the floor. I started this review off by saying this was a band/album you just want to keep to yourself, this is an album that deserves everything it gets and more, an amalgamation of songs that could drive your soul to damnation, but what a beautiful damnation this is.
You’ll have to wait until the 25th September for Nice N’ Rough to be released via Venn Records.
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