The Grubs – Bad Taste
Self-released – 2021
Punk, Garage, Skate
Rated: ****
The drummer from Black Hatch, who operates the Pretty/Spooky Sounds studio recorded the new Bad Taste EP by four-piece The Grubs and it will immediately convince you from that very first track Doin’ Drugs In The Driveway to fry some braincells and windmill like a maniac. The six raging punk tracks will come across as the adolescent and mildly provocative rotten rock songs we all love so dearly from the golden age of punk. But there is a certain sense of humor lurking here that just, even with a sense of reluctance, elevates it all to a higher level. With The Grubs you know you’ve got a classic punk band on your hands in every sense of the word. Machine gun vocals, fired at will, and that lovely fuck it all atmosphere we associate with the skater punk scene. Spunky and choppy drums that speed every one of those six tracks ever forward, no respite, barreling through every conceivable roadblock, keeping the tempo scorching fast, while those bulky riffs or indeed needle-point ones, have you laboring under the idea that you’re speeding towards your inevitable end, deliriously laughing at all those silly people down the road, who never understood what this thing is really all about… It’s about that punk thing, that don’t take it all so seriously thing, that The Grubs thing… And shit, you know you’re not gonna die, you’re gonna skate, in Skateland!
(Written by JK)