Cooking Vinyl – 26 MAR 2021
If this is what ’68 gives, I’ll be forever taken
Every now and then you want to throw on some fun, gritty rock and lose yourself in the blast the members of the band have. Sometimes we all just need to bop our heads, pump our fists and let the rock take over. Few styles of music lend themselves better to that carnal need than that late 60s/early 70s pre-punk sound. Introducing ’68 and their recent record Give One Take One.
The latest endeavor from Josh Scogin, former vocalist of Christian hardcore acts The Chariot, Norma Jean and Luti-Kriss, ‘68 have returned for their third album of bluesy, noise-punk. Along with drummer Nikko Yamada, Scogin has traded in the brutality of his previous projects in favor of a more pure rock and roll. The aggression is still there, but in a different manner.
With clear influences ranging from The Stooges to Buddy Guy to Clutch, ‘68 takes a few well known genres and creates its own beautiful and dirty niche. With blues riffs smoothly grooving into a noise-rock cacophony without ever feeling disjointed, Scogin and Yamada have created something completely theirs, and absolutely ours. The Atlanta duo tunes rip in a way that presents itself as fitting into both the Dazed and Confused soundtrack and alongside Maylene and the Sons of Disaster. I can not stop bobbing along to the tracks long after I have muted the stream.
As the album opens with a straight blues riff before opening track “The Knife, The Knife, The Knife” spells out Scogin’s plan when he sings “I sit back and let the song speak” before commanding the band to “Step aside and let the audience sing along.” And by the second time the band brings that line around again, it’s exactly what the listeners want. This is a track demanding audience participation and I, for one, am happy to oblige.
‘68 could have released “The Knife, The Knife, The Knife” as a stand alone single and I would still argue it belongs on everyone’s year end best of lists, but then they somehow present an even better track to celebrate their blues-noise aggressiveness. “Bad Bite” may claim to be little more than “Just bones and teeth” but the clapped along percussion and Hendrix-meets-Morello guitar work feels fresh and familiar all at once.
“Nickels and Diamonds” is certainly the track with the clearest tribute to the Detroit pre-punk brilliance of The Stooges as the opening riff is so reminiscent of “I Wanna Be Your Dog” it’s hard to tell if it’s homage or plagiarism. It doesn’t much matter though because either way, the song absolutely slaps, oozing sex, filth and dancey desperation.
The album continues to weave between tracks with a deftness often lacking in the noise-rock genre, as each song seems to take pride in the manner in which it fades in and out of one another. In the digital age, I’ve found cohesiveness lacking as most artists focus on song 1, song 2 etc rather than building an album. The Georgia boys have not fallen into that trap here. This is an album in its truest definition, a full work of art not a patchwork quilt of individual tracks. An attention to that detail helps to make the record greater than the sum of its parts… but the parts here are individually flawless.
Bad Dad (occasionally called Ed) has been on the periphery of the punk and punk-adjacent scene for over twenty years. While many contributors to this site have musical experience and talent, Ed’s musical claim to fame comes from his time in arguably the most punk rock Blockbuster Video district in NJ where he worked alongside members of Blanks 77, Best Hit TV and Brian Fallon. He is more than just an awful father to his 2 daughters, he is also a dreadful husband, a subpar writer, a terrible dresser and has a severe deficiency in all things talent… but hey, at least he’s self-aware, amirite?
Check out the pathetic attempts at photography on his insta at https://www.instagram.com/bad_dad_photography/
