Sit Down In Front – Fuelling My Rage: EP Review

Sit Down In Front are an energetic young Punk band from Gisborne, New Zealand who play Old Skool Punk with a souped-up reconditioned motor. They sound great as they hit top gear in a heartbeat and slam their way through their third long playing release in just as many years.

High school mates with a terrific work ethic, helped by some sympathetic teachers. Cory Newman, singer and the visual focus as he has cerebral palsy and performs on stage in a wheelchair. The voice is an obvious homage to John Lydon (Rotten) and the magnificent Sex Pistols, and more than a passing nod to the brief Oi Band movement.

Jackson Clarke guitars and Riki Noble drums make up the tight, locked-in-sync instrumental attack which powers up and leaps over the trenches with their dynamic sound.

Producer Greg Haver, who has worked with Manic Street Preachers and Tom Jones, has delivered a clean sharp sound which lands clean body shots like a Rick Rubin of old.

Don’t Drink Bleach and they have it both ways as the singer snarls out the title and the band reply with Drink Bleach! The band lays out a tight rhythm guitar assault which sounds like the stripped-down lean Rock’n’Roll of AC-DC’s recently departed Malcolm Young. A brief Stooges style riff solo in the middle.

The boys garner a soft spot in my heart as they bring back memories of one of the earliest and best Punk bands from New Zealand, the Scavengers. They really were Pistols worshippers but they also reached back to Sixties Garage Rock.

Pixie Caramel and over a relentless attack rhythm the singer vents his frustration. Heading down to the dairy/ Don’t want no Dairy Milk/ Don’t want no Moro bar/ Pixie Caramel! Embraces one of the best Scavenger songs True Love which begins with I met her at the IGA.

Both songs identify unmistakable Kiwiana right down to the accents. The Sit Downs do it harder and faster. Two versions on this EP. Tiki Taane adds a Hardcore Punk vocal on one which is reminiscent of the Bad Brains of ages ago.

A tradition which identifies Punk as a suburban breakout. Jonathan Richman (Roadrunner) and the Ramones (7-11) based iconic songs around the corner store, the Stop-n-Shop. Part of the myth-building of Rock’n’Roll all the way back to the American drugstore.

Person of Interest does a rip on capitalism and making money out of money/ That’s not for me. Steely sharp riffage which ends with a curiously sedate piano outro.

Statements of intent with Taking Out the Trash and Stage. As in Get off the stage! The boys may have tried to upstage the headliners a few times.

This is very much the live sound I have heard on stage. Honed and polished. They approach the Fast Metal sound of the modern Punk bands whilst rejuvenating that original Moment in time.

Rev Orange Peel           

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