WHIPPETS have a very distinctive-sounding singer—he reminds me of a combination of the singer from ALICE DONUT, Doc Dart from CRUCIFUCKS, and maybe a little Jello Biafra. I think he sounds great. The music is mostly a dark-sounding combination of post-punk, goth, and hardcore punk, with some modern hardcore at the end of the record. Moody and moving. They’d fit well with bands like WET SPECIMENS and KILLING JOKE. Good stuff.
Did anyone else expect SNAPCASE’s “Caboose” to start playing after the opening drum lick on this EP? For your sake, I hope not! Anyway, we’ve got a new 7” from Goodbye Boozy, this time it’s the debut vinyl release from the Madison, WI-based act WHIPPETS. The project began as a recording outlet for Bobby Hussy (he seems to have started developing ideas for it as far back as 2013), but he’s since fleshed things out into a full band by adding frequent collaborator Tyler Spatz (the HUSSY, CAVE CURSE) on bass and Riley Heninger on drums. Broadly speaking, I guess the band plays post-punk, but from track to track the amount of “punk” or “post-” you get will vary. Three of the four tracks on this EP tread a lot of the same ground JAY REATARD laid with Blood Visions—tight, dynamic, start/stop songs that are as indebted to garage punk as they are gothic rock or any of its derivations—whereas “Cure” is more mechanical post-punk in the vein of A FRAMES. To top it all off, Bobby’s doing his best imitation of early-BIRTHDAY PARTY Nick Cave—to the point of caricature, though, so it’s more in TV GHOST territory. I don’t think any of these songs have quite as much character as ones put out by the aforementioned acts, but they’re definitely not bad. You should give it a spin!
