Either Straight Edge is making a comeback, or I’m just picking differently these days. I mean, I picked this one because the descriptor shouted to me: “queer vegan shitpunks.” I had to hear this thing.
Opening their Greatest Shits (Alcopop! Records) with “Drugs R 4 Kids,” Joe & The Shitboys place their flag firmly on the Straight Edge lane of Hardcore. Despite feeling personally attacked from the jump, I stuck with it and am glad I did.
In case it isn’t screamingly obvious, this album is ridiculously profane. In the song titles alone, there are at least two “fucks,” two “shits,” and an “ass.” The album title also conceals the fact that this half-hour of music combines all their previous releases, so, like Dr. Kellogg hoped, all the Shits are Greatest Shits.
The music? The music is why we stick with J&TSb. These guys aren’t 3-chord punks. Songs give prominence to every member, with little distortion to cover for lesser skills. And they’d better have chops. Every song clocks in between twenty-five seconds and two minutes with most in the sub-one-minute duration. Seems like a cross between old-school and the Tik Tok-ification I’ve heard about.
The bassist delivers a virtuoso performance throughout, featuring more often than guitar. (The press kit doesn’t reveal which member with the last name “Shit” plays what, and a quick Google revealed little except Ziggy Shit‘s the guitatist.)
Queer vegan shitpunks are going to be unabashadly political. Given the Straight Edge opener and a tune called “Good Ol’ Days” one might be leery, but these guys loathe the conservative culture of their native Scottish Faroe Islands (which, given the lyrics, sounds rather MAGA-coded for an American audience.) Extraordinarily confrontational, even for Punk, “If You Believe In Eating Meat Start With Your Dog,” “Closeted Homofobe,” and “Manspredator” deliver in-your-face super-woke progressive ideas.
These guys have fun as well. “Macho Man Randy Savage” is every bit as fun as Red Hot Chili Peppers‘ “Magic Johnson” all while delivering primo toxic masculinity lyrics. “Life is Great You Suck” is queerly inspiring, as is “You Are The Best,” the best self-affirmation junkie fix since Degreed‘s “Good Enough.”
The disaster they make of “Wonderwall” is a discordant delight.
Despite being the tenth track, “Shitboys Theme” shouts “track they likely open every show with.” The two lyrics of the whole song alternate between “Shitboys in the house (Shitboys)” and “Shitboys gonna fuck you up.” It’s got the cadence and simplicity to get the house moving from note one.
Given the album’s thirty-seven songs, I cannot possibly cover them all. On the whole, these guys crank out sonic assaults with precision. Some hardcore acts play thirty-second car crashes of sound and fury. J&TSb deliver audio stunts of precision and delight with purpose and meaning. Big step up (especially since I can forgive the first track with the inclusion of the twenty-second track “Legalize Everything.”)
If you got this far, you can handle the cussing. Can you take the punk and politics? I can. And I’m happier for it. You can be, too.
Buy the album here:
https://joeandtheshitboys.bandcamp.com/album/the-reson-for-hardcore-vibes-iii
8 / 10
LARRY ROGERS
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