La Vida Es Un Mus – 15 January 2021
Rowdy UK punk that wants to party with you, or else.
Because trying to describe things within genre constructs is a fool’s game, let us focus on which of these three songs from The Chisel’s Come See Me / Not the Only One, would sound the best blasting out of the stereo at a particularly rowdy football bar (that’s soccer for all the fukin’ yanks out there).
The obvious answer is “Not the Only One,” and not just because it’s the most mid-tempo of the EP’s quite blistering tracks / the longest song one the record (just under three minutes). This is party-punk of the highest order, a rumbling, pop-drumming, we’re-all-singing-at-the-same-time, cheerful sneer-a-long for big men to drink big beers and express their big feelings to each other. Highly concentrated shit we’re working with here.
So it goes on the whole EP, which will take less listen time to listen to than it will to make beans on toast. We’re snarling with smiles on our faces, moshing in a circle and screaming “Oi!,” shaving out heads and buying stock in Doc Martins. Really, that selector question I threw up at the top is a trap, because any one of these songs would make for a fine barfight soundtrack. “Criminal Crew,” which is a cover so convincingly executed that I had nearly posted this review without checking that particular fact, is the kind of stupid that gets stuck in your head and slowly becomes brilliant (sample lyric: “Criminal criminal criminal crew / Oi! Oi! / It’s a criminal crew.” Hell yeah, brother). EP opener “Come See Me” is the speedster of the group, sounding a bit like early 90s so-cal skatepunk on an extended study abroad.
The reality is that this EP may well fit into a legacy of some subculture of UK punk that I’m just not literate in. If that’s the case, and if they all sound like Come See Me / Not the Only One, please alert me immediately. Call it by any name, The Chisel have made one of the most impressive executions of the punk form to be found in the early days of the new-ish year.
Churchill Downs is a guy who lives in Philadelphia and who might write about your band.
