Nine Pound Hammer – ‘When The Shit Goes Down’ (Acetate Records)

Nine Pound Hammer – ‘When The Shit Goes Down’ (Acetate Records)
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 release
Fueled 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

Nine Pound Hammer – ‘Sex, Drugs & Bill Monroe’ (Acetate Records)

Nine Pound Hammer – ‘Sex, Drugs & Bill Monroe’ (Acetate Records)

Way too much of a good time is being consumed in Kentucky and I’d imagine the bands name comes from the hangover they have the following morning or what it would feel like you’ve just been hit with.  Loud, Fast, Wild and reckless cowpunk Hard Rock is the name of the game and hammered home it is too.  From the sprightly opener, it just gets more wild from the awesome screaming ‘Hookers And Hot Sauce’ through the Confident cock of the walk ‘Black Sheep’ which sounds like Rockpile if they were from the US of A and drove pick up trucks and loved BIG Amps and overdrive.

Sure there are lumps of Supersuckers meets, Johnny Cash and some lush Les paul guitar breaks some prime time early DC and plenty of boogie-woogie going on. ITs no holds barred from the anthemic ‘Everybodys Drunk’ through the Un PC ‘Fighting Words’ like fast n furious Jason and The Scorchers but they head back into old school cowpunk with a cheeky grin on ‘Mamas Doing Meth Again’ with a splendid lap steel break to make it all ok, I Think?

With Blane taking a break from Nashville Pussy this seems like the right time to kick back and just rock the fuck out ‘Rode Hard’ is a blast and Scott Luallen vocals are superb pure oil and gasoline rip-snorting vocals and if its respite you’re looking for then this isn’t the album – it’s relentless rockabilly with hard rock guitars and cotton-picking rhythms that sound like they’ve just napalmed the valley and gone home to down some more moonshine.  I would, however, like to see a line dance to ‘Hell In My Hand’ so long as they promise to turn it up for a romp through ‘Ain’t Worth Killing’.  ‘Cookin The Corn’ is a real stomper before they kiss this record goodbye I kept waiting for it to go full throttle but it doesn’t but hey ho that’s cool, there’s one last hurrah in the shape of ‘The Way It Is’. Crack open a six-pack and sit on the porch and shout at passing cars – it’ll be a hoot! Nine Pound Hammer is back in the saddle and these ones bucking and kicking like a slapped mule.  like what Mike Ness wanted to do with his solo albums but forgot to stop in Kentucky and drink some moonshine.

Looks like the good people at Acetate are loading all the NPH albums up on their Bandcamp page for digital rock and rollers everywhere.

Buy Here

Author: Dom Daley