The Mark Vodka Group - self titled

I've been in the mood for some great straight-forward punk rock, and Halifax, Nova Scotia's The Mark Vodka Group has delivered exactly that on its terrific debut album. Out on the ever-reliable Drunken Sailor Records, this self-titled long player is full of pissed-off, fantastically bitter lyrics and catchy tunes that practically smack you in the face. What could be better than that?! It's hard not to love an album that starts off with a song called "I Wanna Piss In The Face of the World", and let's just say that our man Mark doesn't soften much from there! What I like about this record is that you can't neatly slot it into any of the usual sub-genres of punk music. "Boy (I'm Allergic To You)" sounds like the best new Buzzcocks song in years, and that very influence is even more openly acknowledged on the instant anthem "Everybody's Punk Now". Elsewhere, song styles range from pop-leaning garage punk ("All That You've Done For Me") to snotty proto-hardcore ("Goon", "Big Time Rocker") to Devo by way of Coneheads hyperactive weirdness ("You've Got To Split"). There's even a surprisingly great cover of "Touch of Grey" that has me wondering if I've been underrating the Grateful Dead's songwriting chops for decades. Vocally, this is something different for an "angry" punk record. Mark doesn't scream or roar so much as he summons this incredible mix of boredom and disdain. These are songs coming from a dude who's fed up with everyone and everything, and it's like it's not really worth his time to get that upset about it. He lets his venomous words do most of the damage, and boy are they glorious! This is an album that spends a great deal of time taking shots at punk rockers, which to me makes it all the more punk rock. A truly brilliant debut!



-L.R.

https://drunkensailorrecords.bandcamp.com/album/st-lp-12
https://markvodka.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/DrunkenSailorRecords/