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[Get Opera!]

 
Bamboo Kids
Bamboo Kids
(GH-1125)

This is their debut on Get Hip

From - Matt Schild of Aversion
With so many stylistic permutations and developments punk’s seen in the past generation, it’s become a bland catch-all to summarize everything from the ludicrously crusty Casualties to the ridiculously frilly strains of Blink 182. It’s a versatile genre, for sure, but that very versatility’s made the punk label horrendously clumsy and imprecise when it comes to describing bands.

So when you hear about The Bamboo Kids playing punk, know that they play punk. As in bratty, pissed-off and decadent. The Bamboo Kids is the sort of album you’d expect to find couched between a Dead Boys set and your well worn copy of Raw Power. And although that pedigree earned a thousand bands status as mere cornball copycats, The Bamboo Kids enter into the sound with the lust for life to resuscitate the long-dormant sound.

Led by a guitar whose tones straddle the fence between the style-before-substance world of garage punk and the gritty world of street-smart punk rock, The Bamboo Kids know that punk rock isn’t about guitar volumes, tempos or any other token efforts made to beef up the style. Leave that to the poseurs, The Bamboo Kids declare, ’cause we just wanna rock. “Continuous Go-Go” drops guitar figures that sound like ’60s mod on cheap speed – which, essentially is all early punk was – while singer/guitarist Dee Weeks does a spot-on Stiv Bators impersonation. “Inside of You” is all amphetamine treble and growling low end as the band tumbles through a tune that, quite literally, could fit onto The Dead Boys’ Young, Loud and Snotty without sounding the least bit out of place. “Good Boy” tones things down for a slow-simmering bit of tuneful rock, but it’s permeated by a rising pressure, making it obvious that it isn’t a respite as much as a chance for the Kids to catch their breath and come at you again with full fury.

The Bamboo Kids is a record that puts the band in a rare company alongside such acts as The Briefs, acts who uncannily recreate the snotty spirit of the punk ’70s. Sometimes that stands in the Kids’ way as much as it helps them, as the New York trio undeniably owes its very existence to The Dead Boys. On one hand, it makes for some killer rock’n’roll, but on the other, it doesn’t leave too much room for originality. Fortunately the Kids are alright enough to let their powerhouse songwriting help overcome their formulaic shortcomings.



      

LP
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