‘Twenty Bucks and Two Black Eyes‘ reminds me why I don’t like this kind of music much – it’s rugged, uncompromising, aggressive and, well, a bit rubbish really. US Roughnecks certainly come across like Lars Frederiksen and his Bastards, except the songs are really poor versions. This is easily the most ‘punk’ record I’ve reviewed in quite some time, but there’s just something about an album with a song that repeatedly shouts ‘fuck the cops’ that rests uneasy on me.
According to the bio that accompanied this CD, the US Roughnecks have had a few problems with the police. To me that doesn’t mean you can get away with songs that use the vocabulary of a five year old to prove your point. It means that, for the most part, this is a record that sounds the same, bleating on about how life is shit, yet you’re with your bro’s and have a good time by getting drunk and high. Resultantly, ‘Serve and Protect’ and ‘5-29′ come across as braindead three-chord efforts. It’s not all bad mind, ‘Weekend’ is almost an ‘oi’ anthem with a strong vocal, coming across a bit like Agnostic Front, while ‘Roughneck Noise’ doesn’t come across badly either.
This isn’t something I’d go out and buy, I readily admit that, but this isn’t a record that will entice too many people to the genre either. It’s just, well, a bit dumb. You expect 15-year-old kids to have issues with the police and put them across in such a way, not fully grown men. It’s a typical Hellcat release and will appeal to Rancid, Lars… and Agnostic Front fans, but there are better efforts out there which are more representative of the genre.
Hellcat Records
Paul