Thursday, March 20, 2014

Flying Kangaroo Alliance on Punk Fox Records


"BECAUSE we hate capitalism in all its forms and see our main goal as sharing information and staying alive, instead of making profits of being cool according to traditional standards."
- Kathleen Hanna, 1991
(Bikini Kill Zine 2)
I'm reading Girls to the Front by Sara Marcus and it's crazy to be reminded not that long ago, in the '90s, when the book opens, Bush trying to overturn abortion rights and riot grrrls were just starting to raise hell in DC. This single from Flying Kangaroo Alliance was reminding me of that slightly later but related Northwestern US sound of Bikini Kill or L7 except this foursome is from the other direction in Leicester, England. Times hopefully have changed in a lot of ways but that punk sound is always going to be great and Flying Kangaroo Alliance are revisiting those sounds.

That classic Seattle grunge tone opens A-Side's "Hit the wall" and like Bikini Kill, Meri Everitt's got a lot of that same attitude. The rest of the band is rocking a thick wall of classic sound that builds up huge polished foundations. The thudding massive low end drum and bassline are trying to come forward in the face of this epic radio rock sound yelling that chorus. The writing on that woman's back with purple hair is exactly what art school was like in the '90s. Ani Deifranco, Mellow Gold and Vs.. Text on everything, real messy large format photos with the edges showing, messy and buried under broken glass. Here's the soundtrack.

A heavy guitar on B-Side's "Wasted" has a sort of PJ Harvey feel here, this instrumentation fighting alongside her angry vocals that go talky alongside the back and forth guitars crunching across channels, with something of a country feel. Instead of yelling into deaf ears or that void this track is something of an acceptance. Heavily separated left and right riffs and this solo comes in sideways from the right. Meri's vocal picks up steam all the way to the chorus contradicting that person on the A-side

Great clear two color splatter vinyl going out for the pressing and the label is vinyl only...no social media for the label and it's like I'm completely back in the early '90s.


Try emailing them at spaceponyrecords at gmail, import only. Track below.

3 comments:

  1. I'm too old for this shit!........perfect

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous7:22 PM

    Wow kick ass sound

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous7:26 PM

    I am chaindrive and I endorse this group

    ReplyDelete