Unanimous Bangers

The second album by Olympia, WA noise-rockers the Punks is a live-to-cassette improvisation that the liner notes claim was recorded while watching the 2001 stoner comedy How High with Method Man and Redman. As unfocused live improvs go, Unanimous Bangers is less flagrantly messy than most: indeed, most of the tracks go for the "controlled waves of tension and release" theory as espoused by prime Sonic Youth as opposed to the skronk-n-howl of the Boredoms or the Nihilist Spasm Band: "Up Dark Mountains" and "Untitled (Part 1)" are downright mellow in spots, despite the use of police sirens and other extra-musical noises. Of course, "Fuck You, Man" ups the aggression and feedback level considerably, but even it is surprisingly listenable. The opening epic "This Right Here Is Considered a Banger" has a pulsating, drum-heavy feel akin of a lot of the early Krautrock bands (Amon Düül, for example) that sets the varied and consistently interesting tone for the album as a whole. Of course, anyone expecting Unanimous Bangers to sound like the Sex Pistols based on the deliberately misleading band name will be greatly annoyed, but on the other hand, what's more punk than that? ~ Stewart Mason