In The Shit Records/Goodbye Boozy Rec, June 11, 2020
Sick Thoughts reissue a dirty punk record.
Baltimore’s Sick Thoughts is Drew Owen. As simple as the line-up is the music. It’s roughed-up lofi punk that wallows in scuzz and attitude. In the process, Sick Thoughts raises the spectre of Germs and Dead Boys while never losing the hooks. Sure, they might be obscured and fractured by the chaos exploding all around, but they are there to be sure.
Last Beat Of Death is a reissue of Owen’s 2014 follow-up to Terminal Teen Age, his breakthrough from the previous year (and recorded as a teenager). The sound is pretty blown-out all the way through, so lofi that even a lot of the first punk records sound gorgeous by comparison. I mean, the sound most of the way through sounds like someone took a Germs record and played it through an amp loudly enough to destroy it, and then played the record through the now-destroyed amp over again and recorded it this time. If that turns you off, then be on your way. If not, read on.
So if you’re still here, let’s talk songs. Sick Thoughts are all about obnoxious danger. On song after simple song, Owen blasts through dirty Germs-style hardcore. There’s no Cookie Monster growls, no impossibly fast drums and guitars, no macho posturing, and certainly no technically obscene metalcore stuff. Instead, Last Beat is a bunch of rabid noise that sounds like it was made in a desperate attempt to drive off a captor. Still, a lot of the songs have little earworms and hooks that might stick with you when the eighteen minutes winds down. “Goomf” has feral chants of “g-o-o-m-f” and “fuck you, get outta my face” that are dumb as rocks, and I mean that in a good way. Other highlights include “No More” and the guitar hook that seeps out of the chaotic din, “Want Out” and the guitar lead that pretty much works as an air raid siren, and “Hate Is” with its stuttered guitar riff that plays as one of the catchier parts of the record. But my favorite is the opener “Lose Control”. It’s so basic in its three-chord racket and Owen sounds downright unhinged as he yells “I fuckin’ hate you, I lose control”. Feral? This is it.
It’s also worth noting Sick Thoughts tacks on a bonus song previously left off Last Beat Of Death. The song is called “122 Hours of Fear” and is easily the longest song on here, going past the three-minute mark (and if you’ve read my reviews previously, you’ll know my struggles with three-minute-plus songs). It’s got a rather dark sounding lead accompanied by a beamed-in radio signal during the fifty second intro, nearly causing me to lose my patience. But then the song explodes out of nowhere, mid-phrase. What follows is one of the great earworm songs on the reissue featuring some sort of ominous synth sound, cascading ragged guitar, and mad shouts of “be quiet or be killed” and the like. It ends up fitting well as a bookend.
Sick Thoughts sports a destructive combination of cutting and jagged noise and the earworm melodies that are going to sneak into your brain as you listen. If you can deal with the chaos and keep it together without getting exhausted by the blown-out noise, you’ll find some memorable stuff to latch on to.
You might like this if:
- You want a little danger and a deranged din that’ll likely damage your hearing, and maybe your psyche
You might not if:
- You can’t handle music that’s completely destroyed and commonly termed “unlistenable”
ryan is a reviewer and news editor for TGEFM. He’s very secretive, he might be an alien.
