Founding members Scott Luallen & Blaine Cartwright (Nashville Pussy) team up with producer Daniel Rey (The Ramones, White Zombie, Richard Hell, The Misfits) for a raucous new releaseFueled by boredom and worry, Nine Pound Hammer fired it up during the dark winter of 2020 to record their new album, “When The Sh*t Goes Down” available October 1, 2021 on Acetate Records.
For their 8th studio album, original members Scott Luallen and Blaine Cartwright (Nashville Pussy), reached out to Ramones producer Daniel Rey, who braved the Kentucky elements to throw a gas can on the bonfire, helping the band conjure 13 new Cowpunk Spirituals™ that are guaranteed to cure what ails ya. What a perfect fit it is too.
After 35 years of pounding away at the forge of Rock and Roll Nine Pound Hammer are in the house and they sound full of vigor and from the opening salvo of ‘What Kind Of God’ blasts through you know they’ve not lost any of the power or passion for what they do and with Ray’s magic sprinkled over the top it makes for a stonking record. When asked recently what keeps them going Luallen said people still need to rock out and hear genuine Rock and Roll and not some fake shit played by beardy men singing about trains and I immediately felt an affinity and know exactly where he’s at. So much so I threw my stetson in the air and dusted off my cowboy boots the second the title track ripped out of the speakers Cowpunk n roll yeehaw!
‘A Girl Like That’ is what you’d get if the Ramones were not from Queens but from Kentucky (sure having yer man behind the desk kinda makes sense this might happen). ‘Drunks Babies And Fools’ just turned the dial up a notch or two with a great hook on the chorus as the song just bounces on like a demolition derby with nothing left behind its all in cowpunk baby.
Fuck!, ‘Street Chicken’ is a nasty little riff played fast and with fury and plenty of fist-pumping gang vocals on that chorus. There’s a load of variety on this record as the band jumps from the fury of ‘Street Chicken’ to the stomping rocker with the saloon piano tonking away ‘2 Legged Dope’ is Steve Earl meets the Quireboys and hits the single malts hard. then ends up at ‘Mama Lied’ with its cotton-picking chant.
They even get the horns out for the late-night ‘One Last Midnight’ as they conjure up the spirit of ole Johnny Cash before hitting paydirt with some harmonica honkin cowpunk in the shape of ‘Get The Hell Off The Farm’. Before the band check out of this fourteen track whirlwind there’s time to give their six strings a good workout as they put the pedal to the metal and race through a couple of right old rockers before they kick the shit out of ‘Lizard Brain’ like a fitting Jello Biafra.
Finally, ‘Best Of All Possible Worlds’ wraps up this varied and excellent long-player in fine style, Kerrang recently heralded NPH as the best the state had to offer in Punk Rock and I wouldn’t argue with that one bit and on this evidence, they might just have hit it square on the head with or without a nine pound hammer. Go get some boys n girls before the shit really does go down!
Pre-order: Here
Author: Dom Daley
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