EP REVIEW: BRIAN JAMES – ANNIVERSARY WALTZ EP

EP REVIEW: BRIAN JAMES – ANNIVERSARY WALTZ EP
Easy Action Records
July 2016
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar
8/10

There’s practically no-one I can think of who was so pivotal to the punk movement, yet has remained so fiercely true to their punk roots, as Brian James.

Released on coloured 7” vinyl and limited to only 300 copies, this 4-track EP celebrates the first Damned shows and single, forty years ago – a hell of a milestone for anyone.

Side A features James pulverising The Damned’s Sick Of Being Sick – a track he wrote four decades ago and which still sounds dangerous, vital, menacing and confronting today – and teaming up with former colleague Rat Scabies for a similarly raucous take on The Pink Fairies track Teenage Rebel, whilst side B has I Said No and Baby She Crazy, two more garage punk anthems in true James style.

James makes little commercial concessions with his work – in that he is a true punk: recognising no boundaries of what he SHOULD do, and softening his art for no man, woman or child. The fact that he is still with us and creating such in-yer-face material after forty years is worthy of a medal itself, and this release will be a must for any old punk who similarly never settled down.

http://easyaction.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=446

Category: CD Reviews