Hey, Ho Lets Go! Geoff Palmer has got this power pop punk rock off to a tee. He’s nailed the melodic Ramones melodies for that 50’s feel and the playing is street tough, not brawling but tough enough to wear a leather jacket after dark kinda tough.
Sixteen tracks of hard luck no luck tough love boy meets girl falls in love falls outa love has a beer hangs out with his buddies you know the drill. One thing I have to say is this record sounds like it was recorded on a lot of laughs and was such a fun record to make I can’t believe this was a hard job pulling these tunes out of the band at all – Hell I might be way off but that’s what these tunes are singing to me.
‘I Like Murder Too’ (oh that love song) has a touch of The Dwarves about it. I could certainly hear Blag wagging his finger to this one in some flea pit out on the road somewhere. What separates it is the acoustic guitar underneath the buzzing electric guitar riff but those backing vocals are top notch.
‘Got The Skinny’ is time honoured and the loud overdriven guitars sound great doesn’t it. ‘We Can’t Do It’ is way over there in Beach Boys territory on the intro – No seriously but fear not the distortion pedal is pressed and away we go its 16ths on the hi-hat and woohoo! the end.
‘Everything Is Cool’ hell yeah! and so it is. great riff, great fun lets go! When you’re onto a good thing don’t stop don’t try and be cool or be hip just keep rolling and so ‘All The Hits’ scratches that pop-punk itch. When we hit ‘Paper Heart’ Palmer introduces some keys and jolly nice they are too. Adding another colour to the pallet whilst its just a slower pace its a great piece of songwriting sure it won’t see him inducted to the Hall Of Fame but it will put a smile on someones face when they spin this record loudly on their stereo on a Friday night and that’s just the point isn’t it. One piece at a time – we’ll get there in good time.
‘Donut’ is a cool tune and ‘Make It’ is a great way to wind down the record from the arrangement to the melody its borrowed a bit from the 80’s new wave of the Cars and alternative Westerberg in his later Replacements days. Which just leave a couple of tracks with one being ‘Punker Than You’ which is as you’d expect but the finale is acoustic – slide guitar and a rocking horse upbeat stroll like a long lost Exploding Hearts track. Get Geoff Palmer on tour with Shit Islands The Speedways and together they can conquer the world I guarantee it (maybe)
Much Like Brad Marino these talented so and so’s make up the songwriting duo of garage rock faves The Connection or Geoff is also one-third of pop-punk darlings The Guts, punk rockers, power-poppers, and garage rockers this is one you can feast on whenever – it’s like a little ray of East Coast sunshine.
Author: Dom Daley
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=143&v=KnvchWA9ZVo
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