After a five-year break, this band has returned with a really impressive album, and I can say: the gentlemen haven't forgotten how to make music and have written twelve catchy Punkrock pieces, plus a grandiose Beatles cover, that underlines their potential and they don't got any quieter. Released via TKO Records with delicat Artwork and and partly in white vinyl. Info: formed during the initial onslaught of UK Punk in 1976, Manchester's Slaughter & The Dogs were one of the first group to release a single (the overlooked classic "Cranked Up Really High") on trailblazing hometown independent label Rabid Records. - A review: Slaughter & the Dogs were there at the beginning, but lacked the controversial flair of some contemporaries who got more ink or the talent that helped their other peers remain major influences decades later. They had a few classic songs ("Cranked up Really High" was the bands first single), but little else, and a longevity to match. Nostalgia brought key members Wayne Barrett and Mick Rossi, kind of a punkin' poor man's Tyler and Perry, back together in the '90s with a new rhythm section. Though this is the second release of all-new material from the stalwarts after several semi-official live releases, after 1999's Shocking it was the first to have a proper promotional push in the States. The band sounds like they're having fun, and Beware Of is pleasant enough, fondly recalling the days when punk incorporated glam influences proudly. But at the end of the day, it often just magnifies the aforementioned limitations of the group. The fact that the best song on here, "Hell In New York," was written in the glory days and only finally put down in the studio for this disc shows how hard it is to teach old dogs new tricks. (Brian O'Neill)
Although it's a classic, Cranked Up Really High was definitely NOT "the first single to be released by a punk band", that was the Damned with New Rose in October 1976, "Cranked" was issued in June 1977.
ReplyDeleteBuzzcocks' Spiral Scratch EP had been released (29 January 1977) and both Sex Pistols' "Anarchy in the U.K." and the first two singles by The Vibrators had been released by November 1976.
yep, you're right.... I corrected it, thx mate!
DeleteI believe Crime and Suicide Commandos in the US had singles out before October 1976 and in September 1976 The Saints in Australia had their first single out. All these on independent labels. The Ramones first single was released during Summer 1976, I believe, on a major label. So the Damned would be the first UK Punk band to release a single on an independent label.
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