Never was there a truer cliché than the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, something the
U.S. Bombs have been confirming since the release of their debut single, "Scouts of America," back in 1995. Reduce the band's sound to its constituent pieces, and you're left with heaps of rifled old-school punk riffs, guitar leads, and rhythms littered across the floor. Glue them back together, and you'd have one killer British punk compilation, but what would be missing is the ephemeral modern sensibility that the group brings to all their tracks. So, in reality, you've heard all of
Back at the Laundromat before, but never like this. Opening with a military tattoo ripped straight from the digits of
Stiff Little Fingers, in quick order the Bombs splatter the tracks with note-perfect punk recreations, spurred by the same sense of nihilism that fired the original bands. What sets them apart from being generic old-school copyists is their predilection for slamming together riffs and rhythms from distinctly different sources. Take the anthemic "Die Alone," for example: a shotgun wedding between the Pistols' signature riff and a blushing Clash-esque lead guitar, it's sheer brilliance. Drummer Chip Hanna's SLF fixation makes for some equally unexpected but fabulous bedfellows, notably on "Cirenda," where the Ulstermen's beat bangs straight into a shoutalong
Sham 69. And for the patriotic, America's own New York Dolls are an equally obvious influence. And so it goes, across a dozen melody-driven, high-energy anthems that are sure to set your pulse racing. Lyrically, too, the Bombs take their cue from the old school, as Duane Peters spits and growls his discontent. The music industry gets several good kickings, as does blind patriotism, fashion, and even disco. Yet unlike many of their new-school contemporaries, the band are not so much politicized as disgruntled; in their world, nihilism still rules with all the frenzied fun that inevitably entails. ~ Jo-Ann Greene