Yeah yeah, I know - another fourteen tracks of trashy rock 'n' roll slung out of some God-knows-where town in the good old US of A (South Carolina actually) trading off junkie lyrics and riffs from the Johnny Thunders book of hard knocks.

Well you'd be on the right road but Fast Boys are far more uncomplicated punk rock than that. The thing is this brand of punked up rock either courses through your veins giving you life or it doesn't (or you're dead of course) - simple as that.

 
It's not quite what I expected to be honest; sure 'Rock 'N' Roll Trash' does exactly what it says on the tin - there are no frilly slushy over-produced, compressed-to-shit glitz here - it's far more punk than that with real dirt under the fingernail stuff, sounding like a 'live in the studio with as little overdubs as possible' offering, just the way this style should be. It's lo-fi and sleazy in all the right ways.

'Fast Boys DTK' is fuel injected and 'Heartbreaker' is fast paced and owes more to the Ramones than it does the Dolls. It's great to see that the UK Subs must have had an impact on these dudes because 'New Fun' reeks of Charlie Harper. Clocking in at a fraction over 30 minutes it's great to see bands embrace punk like this and put their own take on proceedings in a mix mash up of UK and US styles. Considering their ages these boys kick up a shit storm and all power to them. It's only fair to commend these lads on penning a strong set of songs, make no mistake about that, but the only question mark I have is the cover of The Damned classic 'New Rose' which in my eyes is hallowed ground. Although there is nothing wrong with this version maybe putting it on a B-side would have been the right thing to do and the album wouldn't have suffered without it being included.
 

There are no slushy love songs nor a ballad in sight, in fact the pace seldom relents and to sign off with a track that has hand claps is always a big tick in my book - what's that about small things pleasing small minds? Sloppy rocker 'Late Nights' has them a plenty. Cheers for that Fast Boys, you're definitely on the right road - keep on keeping on.

Influences like the Dead Boys, The Damned, New York Dolls, The Stooges and other punk rock royalty can only be a good thing. Nasty, Cocoa, Fitz and Mikey sure have the cahoonas to rock out ('Grown Up Blues' proves that point superbly) and the more I play 'Rock 'N' Roll Trash' the better it gets. Be loud and proud boys, love your work \m/.

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