GagBags are a London/New York project made from the twisted minds of members of the Gaggers and Trash Bags. This debut 12” delivers 6 slabs of ‘77 era punk from the bowels of New York City and London Town that is dripping with snot & bile.

I can’t imagine there would have been many takes of these songs in the studio it would have been a case of – is this mic on? 1-2-3-4 Go! The vocals are in the Stiv meets early GG bag whilst the razor-sharp fretwork of the guitars is suitably abrasive and distorted. There’s no time to fuck about nor warm up its wham bang thank you, mam. They’re coming out of the speakers swinging and with a middle finger in the air for anyone expecting some niceties or soft edges this shit is jagged and dangerous just as punk rock was meant to be.

It’s the Travis Bickle Taxi ride through 1970s LES and the groove and bite of Victorian London with the dirt and grit. From the off ‘Nowhere New York’ captures the excitement of The Gaggers when they kicked off with the guitar riff prowling round the speakers looking for trouble The handclaps add a little Glitter and Glam around the wall of guitars and howling lick. Cool stuff. More of the same as ‘She’s Got’ has a dash of Toilet Boys to proceedings and I like that.

With only six songs on offer there isn’t time for any filler and ‘Creeping Around’ does just that. Like being hit repeatedly over the head with a bat it’s got attitude galore. ‘Downtown Marauder’ has a hint of The Doll’s swagger as it hunkers down in your brain. the guitar lick /solo whatever you want to call it is simple and a lot of fun as you curl your lip like William Broad used to from the subway train and Bass thump its a banger. The penultimate stop on this little jaunt is ‘Judging Eyes’ and it would fit right in with the likes of Ravagers who are cut from the same cloth.

One last hurrah sees the rapid snotty ‘Rules Of Disorder’ that’s dripping with old school back street punk rock and that’s a joy to hear in 2024 there aren’t near enough rock n rollin’ punks making music like this. All power to the Gagbags and fingers crossed for more of this in the near future, Please. Buy It!

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Author: Dom Daley