OUTLOUD! Records, 27 September 2020
The Barbariettes deliver on this catchy punk rock love letter to wrestling.
An unlikely punk scene in the western reaches of Kentucky has seemingly popped up, with Parasite Diet and The Barbariettes leading the way. The Barbariettes are a 3-piece who’ve previously released a couple of recordings six or so years ago, but are now back with a full length titled Slobber Knocker!. The record plays as a sort of love letter to professional wrestling, with nine originals and three covers taking care of things.
A bunch of Slobber Knocker! is pretty good and straightforward pop punk. Songs like “Ace of Babes” and “Kiss ‘Em All” have lots of melody and tons of speed. “Babes” chorus gets all sugary and catchy and shimmering and ends up one of the more memorable on the record. “Kiss” is maybe the fastest song on this thing, with a great descending guitar and bass riff and some panicked vocals. It also works in some high-energy synths that make for a raucous good time. And “Razor’s Edge” and “Rest In Peace” pay tribute to two of my favorite wrestlers from when I was a kid. The Razor Ramon song bounces along with poppy melodies and a drawn out vocal hook on the verses that bounces around my head, while the Undertaker homage digs into a fast and nasty aggressive punk riff, even dropping references to his signature move, the tombstone. Both are lots of fun.
They also work in a couple of different directions that throw a kink in the pop punk blueprint. “Dirty Dreams” is a goofy song about having dirty dreams about Mick Foley (Mankind, Dude Love, etc). It’s got a nice melody and a cool rhythmic hook and the vocals remind me a bit of 90’s one-hit band Letters To Cleo. In fact, the whole song could maybe fit nicely on Aurora Gory Alice. “Saturday Crush” is a quick little banger that pops a quick, snare-only drum roll in on a few occasions, serving as a disruptive rhythmic reset. Plus, the descending guitar and bass hooks make a home in my head. And earlier in the record, “You Can’t See Me” is a little more mid-tempo with some bouncy double-tapped snares and great melodic guitars. This song has one of the tighter structures on the record with some Spector-ish backing vocals and a tastefully simple lead guitar that shimmers and hangs in the ether just right. It sort of gets me thinking of the newest Lucy and the Rats record and ends up being my favorite song on Slobber Knocker!.
There’s not much that doesn’t work on Slobber Knocker!. The covers are okay (I really like how they handle Ramones “Loudmouth” and Jay and the Americans “This Magic Moment”; a little more lukewarm with their take on Riverdales “Last Stop Tokyo” – though the original isn’t one of my favorite Riverdales songs either). “Tennessein’ Is Tennebelievin’” doesn’t quite land right for me, though it has some cool synths on the chorus and dueling guitar shreds. And “Bret Hart”’s namesake was never a favorite wrestler of mine (but it does have a hooky-as-all-get-out chorus). Maybe these aren’t my favorite moments, but none of these songs are bad – they just don’t leave a mark as strong as some of the others.
The Barbariettes deliver on Slobber Knocker!. The songs are fun, a little different, and mostly catchy as shit. And even with a tribute to Bret Hart that goes nowhere with me, the record sticks to the brain and sounds just right. Check it out.
Favorite song: “You Can’t See Me”
Favorite moment: the snare-only drum rolls all over “Saturday Crush”
Favorite whatever else: the cover art is cool as shit, kind of fun, kind of silly, and kind of tough
ryan is a reviewer and news editor for TGEFM. He’s very secretive, he might be an alien.
