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The Mudd Club: Give Me A Thrill – album review
album review The Mudd Club: Give Me A Thrill (Raving Pop Blast) CD/DL/LP Out now (preorder vinyl) Follow up to ‘Bottle Blonde’ by Teenage Delinquent Garage Punks from Bristol via Kansas. Still effortlessly reinvigorating basic Rock’n’Roll comic-book style. says Ged Babey. Sometimes you just can’t explain why a band are so brilliant. You just HAVE […]
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album review
The Mudd Club: Give Me A Thrill (Raving Pop Blast)
CD/DL/LP
Out now (preorder vinyl)
Follow up to ‘Bottle Blonde’ by Teenage Delinquent Garage Punks from Bristol via Kansas. Still effortlessly reinvigorating basic Rock’n’Roll comic-book style. says Ged Babey.
Sometimes you just can’t explain why a band are so brilliant. You just HAVE to see them play live.
Other times a beautifully shot performance video, one camera, one take, in the cosiest & coolest of Bristol pubs will do the job just as well…
The Mudd Club make it seem so effortless and just play old-fashioned rock’n’roll. The Cramps are the bleedin’ obvious reference point but so are a hundred other obscure ‘trash’ bands and artists from the 1950’s to the 1970’s. From Duane Eddy to the Pleasure Seekers to the Saints…
Talking of whom, i disgraced myself, showing my ignorance when I posted about ‘The Mudd Club covering the Saints song Wild About You on this album’… when the Saints covered it themselves, it originally being by Aussie garage band The Missing Links. It is however the Saints version that inspired The Mudd Club to take it on.
Everything about the Mudd Club is just spot on. The album cover photo showing Sadie lighting a cigarette with the lit fuse from a stick of dynamite is just genius. They are like a cartoon come to life.
Bassist Joe and drummer Julian play with a relaxed skill and professionalism whilst knowing Sadie is the focus. The Mudd Club are the vehicle for her songs and distracted charisma. Now 21, the girl has become a woman soon enough, but retains a seemingly naive teenage charm. Singing ‘Give Me A Thrill’ she looks coy but there’s no trace of sleazy wantonness. The only ‘dirty’ thing about the Mudd Club is the guitar tone.
The album is packed with great songs about new shoes, new tattoos, boys stealing your heart and boys treating you mean, but getting their comeuppance.
The Mudd Club are the past, present and future of garage rock’n’roll kept simple. It’s an enclosed fantasy world of Happy Days style 50’s retro with a punk-rock sneer and a wink. Knowing and thrilling, the Mudd Club are escapism as a political act. Trash art that refuses to accept that life is hard and the world is falling apart.
All words Ged Babey
Bonus Feature
And here, below, is the brilliant, breathless ‘Running Punks’ review of the album.
‘Who they?’ you ask – Well they seem to be a nutty jogger/runner dude who listens to punk rock whilst running and reviews the album as he does it! (Not an idea I’m gonna nick being a lover of the cigarette and a couch potato punk.)
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