Bloodbags – Bloodbags (Kato) (13th Floor Album Review)
Makin’ dirty mischief since at least 2012, releasing dirty records since 2016, Bloodbags the scion of past outfits Bloody Souls and The Dirtbags, after releasing wha 7”s and a split LP with US band Brain Bagz have finally released their debut album – Bloodbags.
Tolley, possibly the tallest axeman in waiata Aotearoa, alongside compadres Rapley on Bass and Ralston on drums, with careful handling by Mathew Heine, offer ono new songs, many, if not most, standards on any Bloodbags setlist. When the needle hit the vinyl, at first I thought my needle was dirty, but after a few restarts I realised that the music is supposed to sound dirty.
Excitement had clouded my brain, and ignoring the clearly stated side tahi, I put side rua on first and received a sliced reinterpretation of Crawl by long-dead 1980s NYC scuzpunks Black Snakes (a live favourite). I was immediately taken back to a Tamaki Makaurau dive bar, possibly one of the ones listed on the album’s punk rock insert, karmic chaos, beer, and castles in the air swirled around me once again.
Bloodbags the band and the album have an exigent attitude, blue collar dissatisfaction, and a desire, nay, a need to offend the sedentary elite. Just reading the titles: Yr Shit Just Quit, Primitive Screwhead, Inconsequential Man, and Art Skool Assholes, and you get the sense that no one is safe. Tolley’s words are scrawled on walls of garage-rock, blues-punk and noise-grooviness, giving way only to seismic guitar riffs and mesmeric, rhythms that mess with your circadian rhythms, but have you thanking your demiurge for the birth (and legacy) of black-american blues.
Simon Coffey
Bloodbags is out now. Click here to buy the record.
