Tweet
Murder Junkies - A Killing Tradition
Released by: MVD Audio
Released on: 5/7/2013
Purchase From Amazon
The latest album that the late GG Allin's backing band follows reasonably quickly on the heels of 2011's Road Killer, which we reviewed here. According to the credits and album art, the lineup has not changed - once again The Murder Junkies features PP Duvay handling vocals, Merle Allin (GG's Hitler moustache wearing brother) and Dino Sex laying down the rhythm on bass and drums respectively. Sonny Joe Harlem is still handling guitar.
So has the new album altered the sound at all? Nope, not at all. That's good news for those who enjoyed Road Killer and Feed My Sleaze (the first Murder Junkies album without GG, released way back in 1995 and now reasonably hard to come by - though it did feature a different vocalist and guitar player) respectively. They've more or less got things down to a nasty science at this point - catchy guitar hooks, skuzzy low-fi production values, and crass disgusting lyrics guaranteed to offend. To the band's credit, it works.
The eleven tracks that make up A Killing Tradition are as follows:
I've Seen Worse (But You're Bad Enough) / Chick's Can't Rock / Get Dead Real Soon / You Should Kill Yourself Too / Road Killer / Danny Rolling / Everyone I Know Is An Asshole / Shit Princess / Who Gives A Fuck What You Like / Less Is More / Long Long Ride
The opening line of the opening track is 'Well C'mon, let's see some tits, it's time for you to get undressed…dirty old mouth on a dirty old dick, now c'mon you fat ass bitch, just get your bullshit over with.' From there we get the chorus - 'I've seen worse but you're bad enough, another skank from a town I've just forgot, wearin' a dress I've already seen. Sip from the tap and drink my goddamn piss, drink it all down till there's nothing left, lick my dirty asshole, eat some shit.'
So yeah, that more or less sets the tone right there. The Murder Junkies are good at this type of thing. They write gross, nasty and horribly offensive lyrics and they wrap it up in seriously catchy music so that, like it or not, you find yourself singing along with it. The whole album works this way, it's memorably depraved and just as memorably beguiling albeit very basic in terms of the musicianship. No one buys a Murder Junkies album for mad solos or noodling guitar playing, so it'd be unrealistic to expect any of that. This is just straight ahead all the way through, it's simplistic but it doesn't need to be anything more than that.
Chick's Can't Rock is a dig at female bands whose members 'can't play a note on that expensive guitar but start sucking cock to become a rock star - because tits and ass killed rock n roll.' That's pretty self explanatory right there. Get Dead Real Soon and You Should Kill Yourself Too are just vile, angry, hateful and pissed off. Road Killer, which oddly enough did not appear on the album of the same name, is about 'driving up some highway' a lot and generally being a bit of a degenerate. Danny Rolling starts off with ten seconds of guitar before Duvay's vocals, sounding stressed for the first time on the record (he's singing out of his range but it gives the song a bit of distinction) is a track about a guy who is violent and perverted and who was a rapist - so there's that. Everyone I Know Is An Asshole actually starts off as a reasonably mid-tempo affair, it's slower and less antagonistic musically than the other songs on the album, but lyrically it's more or less a fuck you to the world. Shit Princess is lyrically amazing as it coins the phrase 'my little cock will be your asshole's BFF' as it details the nitty gritty of giving it to a loving lady who likes it up the poop shoot. Who Gives A Fuck What You Like is, well, it's about not caring what you like. Oddly enough it has a guitar riff in it that sounds a lot like a Clutch track, it's got that bluesy semi-heavy catchy sound to it, but once the vocals kick in, there's nothing stoner rock about this track at all.
The last two tracks on the album are actually the best. Less Is More is just a fast, hook filled track about working for a living and hoe that can take its toll on a man, though there's plenty of the expected references to typical Murder Junkies subject matter laced throughout. Closing out with Long Long Ride, we finish off the album with a truly anthemic track (no seriously, it's pretty anthemic) about life on the road and what the members of the band get up to while travelling around the country doing their thing. This one actually does have a quick little guitar solo in it (really quick, less than ten seconds) but mostly it's just fast three-chord style nastiness with vocals spit and growled by Duvay with impressive authenticity and a little bit of southern twang.
The whole things sounds like it was recorded in an outhouse, the production values suck even by the band's low standards, but God damn if half the tracks on this disc won't get stuck in your head - whether you want them to be there or not is irrelevant. This is good stuff if you don't mind the lyrics (some will appreciate them, others will be completely turned off by them - such is life). The band truly does not give a shit, mainstream acceptance isn't a thought that's ever crossed their mind. They play fast and they play dirty and they share their unhealthy obsessions with serial killers, perversions, degradation and substance abuse through lyrics that are as catchy as they are completely unhealthy.
Here's are some clips from a recent show at Hank's Saloon in Brooklyn, NY!
