Raise your fist and yell!!
Exploding out of good old London Town, come the full-throttle stripped-down-rock with a razorblade slash of Punk, that is Trashcat. If you kidnapped Lemmy, shut him in a room with The Toilet Boys, some whisky and nose candy, then pumped in some sleazy-and-down-right-dirty Rock’n’Roll, then eventually this three-piece band would emerge from the room slightly dazed and confused, but clutching ‘Too Much Ain’t Enough’ in their sticky fingers before collapsing in a sweaty spent hangover…
Opening track ‘Nightlife’ has large guitar riffs that drip out of the speakers with an entrancing humming bassline, and shotgun drumming that opens up your eyes to the horrors of the world. This is Punk’N’Roll at it’s best. Short catchy songs that border on anthems wrap themselves around you like an old friend. Album title track, ‘Too Much Ain’t Enough’ follows on with chugging guitars and lyrics like, “…fishnet sassy threads // them legs knock me dead…” Then we have the drug-fuelled magic of, ‘Dirtbird Paradise’ which is the first time I’ve heard “King Size Rizla” in a song since some dodgy rave songs from the 1990’s!
‘Tastes Like Ecstasy’ could be a Motorhead song, and of course the comparisons will always be there with Darragh’s gravely whisky-soaked vocals. It has a nice sing-a-long chorus opening up for some air-guitar also. Following on from this we have the slightly more thoughtful and chilled Rock’n’Roll of ‘Go Home’ which could be Lemmy collaborating with Rancid on one of their stripped down Clash-influenced numbers. It’s a tantalising enough to harden the nipples of most music lovers with the slight cockney accent on a mid-tempo plod. Great stuff! Then just to prove that they can rock they pull out the stops to the anthem that is, ‘Rock & Roll’ whereby they show that they have three big pairs of balls, which of course is impressive as they have a female member (if you pardon the pun). This showcases the band perfectly showing that they have Punk attitude and anarchy but also an ability to write a great catchy tune. “I don’t wanna take cocaine all night”, sings Darragh like it’s just one of those things.
‘Back Against The Wall’ has a nice funky beat with a majestic bass-line and melodic guitar riffs in the verses, before building up and ejaculating into a fist-pumping chorus. We then have more guitar chugging in ‘Ready To Go’ before it builds into an anthem chorus of slightly fuzzy guitars. Aside from the transvestite front-man called Guy, Trashcat sound a lot like New York band, The Toilet Boys here. We then have a rocking slightly Rockabilly slash Surf-Rock instrumental song of, ‘Nightboat To Surat Thani’, before the last song that is a bouncy Ska-Punk stomp of a song called, ‘Get ‘Em In’ which is another song with a great shouting chorus and some wonderful English references. I’m pretty sure I’ve never heard ‘His nibs’ in a song before, and for that I applaud them!
Currently based in Hackney, although looking to relocate to Berlin later in the year, Trashcat were formed out of the ashes of The Restarts in 06’/07’. This is a fine example of some of the great music that is coming out of Blightly, and also the tragedy of how this band remains one of Britain’s best kept secrets. On the cusp of what bands like Strawberry Blondes, Guns On The Roof and The Dead Pets are doing in Punk, mixed with Glam/Rock’n’Roll of The Toilet Boys, and the thrust and experience of Motorhead with a shake of Rancid and a pinch of The Clash, you get a wonderful mix of all that is musically great. Long live Trashcat!