I can't be the only person that mourns the demise of the Bombjacks on a regular basis. And Skirtbox. Or maybe the latter didn't break up, just continued to do the sum total of fuck all. Who knows.
Anyway, I wasn't expecting much from this. Nothing was going to beat The Best Thing I Got In The Post Today which was an invitation to a reception at the Chinese Embassy in London in July. No, that takes some beating. BRD's press release certainly wasn't enough to fill me with eager excitement, but I was converted as soon as I heard opener 'No Escape'. They sound a bit like the Bombjacks, sans croonage. And a bit like Skirtbox. BRD play very very competent poppy skatepunk. It's quite a refreshing change from the swathes of wussy, testosterone-free, metrosexual rentboys that populate the current wave of punk rock.
So from listening to this debut, we can tell they like Over It, they like NUFAN, they like Lagwagon and Strung Out. The good thing is they have the chops to pull off what they're trying to do, a problem that dogs the average badly marketed UK band. There's songs about booze, in a serious context mind, and songs about girlfriends and other stuff. They're catchy songs, they're well played and there are some very, very nice technical touches in here. Specific kudos to drummer Andy who has clearly done his Strung Out-styled training.
I'm going to play this to my friends. We were brought up on stuff like this, and they need to get some serious tours booked because there's a much bigger demand for good punk rock like this in the UK and europe than we all think. Standout track for me is 'Uneven Challenge' because it sounds like Pulley. And I like Pulley. James sings better than the chap from Failsafe, they're less widdly than Fastlane and easier to get into than PMX.
www.beyondreasonabledoubt.co.uk
Ten Past Ten Records
Si.
