Record Review // Bambies "Snotty Angels" (Spaghetty Town Records)

 

https://thebambies.bandcamp.com/album/snotty-angels

https://spaghettytownrecords.bigcartel.com/product/bambies-snotty-angels-vinyl

When listening to the Bambies I hear that raw punk quality that I love in music which also embraces a bit of rock n roll.  This album, "Snotty Angels", immediately takes me back to a time in the early '00's.   Bands like River City Rebels and who you would expect to play with them come to mind when listening to this, which is good because I didn't know they still made punk rock like this.  There is also something modern about it as well.

With those crunchy guitar chords and even guitar solos, Bambies have sing along background vocals in the chorus.  This feels so much more like a live show to me than an album because this just immediately takes me back to a place where I'd be in a VFW Hall or something similar, listening to this live with all of the other punks.   Part of this also takes me all the way back to CBGB's days (before I was alive) as it does have aspects of it which also remind me of Dead Boys.  

By the end of "Snotty Punks" I feel like I've heard some Operation Ivy in here as well, but one of the biggest influences I've heard is a band called The Briefs and I'm not even sure how many people have heard of them.  Thinking back to the early '00's just makes me remember bands who had a demo tape out there or a CD (maybe even no recorded music) and yet it was all before streaming so maybe they're music isn't out there on Bandcamp today.  This just makes me feel like maybe we've lost some music along the way, but it gives me hope we might be able to find it.

A song such as "Teenage Night" can have the chorus which says: "Another teenage night / What a mess / I wanna rest" and if you're listening to this as a teenager you can likely relate with it.  But, for me, no longer being a teenager, I can at least look back at those years, think of the music that sounded like this at that time and just smile.  This is how music should be generational and appeal to anyone at any time.  Plus, Bambies just capture that good old fashioned formula of just plain rocking.