Bitches / YuppiesSplit 12"
FatCat record’s Brighton based sister label, Palmist are a beacon of principle in a sea of compromisers. They cling to vinyl in a digital world and they work with artists they love not those from whom they could make a quick buck. They’re made the way independent labels used to be made. After the idiosyncratic coupling of US Girls and Slim Twig their latest split 12” is a more complimentary affair. London based thug pop duo Bitches (first featured on the Devil's blog last February, Queen Bitches) and American four piece garage punks Yuppies take the punk template and bend and twist it into something they can call their own.
On their side of the 12” Bitches make an unholy racket that sounds like Huggy Bear being bated by rednecks. On Heimlich Blake screeches ‘I was touched by a beautiful angel’ while the duo make a noise akin to pushing a narrow selection of instruments down the stairs. It’s like being caught in the middle of a particularly vicious cat fight.It’s angry, it’s noisy and it spits like a tormented cobra.
In the best punk tradition few of the tracks on the Bitches side of the 12” make it over the 2 minute mark. They come; they beat your ears to a soggy pulp and then bugger off before you know what’s hit you. There is nothing polished, poised or professional about Bitches it’s music raw in tooth and claw.
Like Bitches, Yuppies use punk as their starting off point but where the London duo pump it full of ear splitting dissonance the Nebraskan four piece mix it with late 60s fuzzy garage rock and the lo-fi rock of Pavement. Take ‘Let Me In’, a blast of nihilistic noise that sounds like an echo from under the floorboards of the Roxy in 1976.While sonically Yuppies tick all the right boxes lyrically they’re closer to the Ramones than Morrissey. They’re unlikely to make the shortlist for the Pulitzer prize, but it works. The lyrics of ‘Sunglasses’ for example are so inane they could have been written by a lobotomised Katy Perry or taken from an unreleased Stranglers track, but when screamed by Jack Begley they take on an importance that belies their inanity.
Overall the split 12” is another success for those preeminent people at Palmist. Bitches just about shade it courtesy of their uncompromising aural assault, but it’s a close call.
7.5/10
This article was originally written by the Devil for The 405 and is published with permission.Cholula by BITCHES
MP3 - Bitches - Wallet
This track is linked direct from the Palmist website and is therefore already freely available so please don't claim breach of copyright
Getting Out by yuppies
MP3 - Yuppies - For The Futures SakeThis track is linked direct from the Palmist website and is therefore already freely available so please don't claim breach of copyright
Go Visit
Bitches - Myspace : Website : Last.FM
Yuppies - Myspace : Last.FM
Go View
Bitches
Jesus Sweat