WAILING CITY: CD Review: Straight To VHS

By Adam Wujtewicz

"You ain't no ninja!". That's pretty much the sum of the lyrical content of the first song on New London garage rockers Straight To VHS' new album Weekend Weekend Weekend. Bad grammar aside it shows the straight-forward-no-frills-completely-ireverant-style they're going for. With the bass in the right headphone, guitar in the left, drums and vocal in the middle - they're pushing the retro punk aesthetic to it's limits. It's a classic punk rock sandwich that's been proven to work and with a little pop and blues sprinkled in there STVHS is bound to start ears ringing this fall.

Four chord punk songs with a bit of the White Stripes' blues influenced whine is a poppy punch to the neck that I was not expecting after their clip-tastic self titled debut. The up-tempo herky jerky riffing played through amps that sound like they are about to give way is par for the course but it's the points of slight divergence that make your ears perk up and listen to Weekend Weekend Weekend. "Yeah Yeah Yeah" features a quiet bridge with 00's styled emo crooning which will make you do a double take. "Sore

Loser" is a slower very Jack White tune that pretty much cuts the album in half and gives your ears and heart rate a short break. "Casino Baby" starts in like one of the Cure's pop tunes before the slashing and strumming commences. While the recording is far from what I'd call a big production it's way cleaner and punchier that the self titled record. The guitars are layered up and the bass is full on audible and actually rumbling in the lower registers. The drums are pretty low in the mix but the kick is omnipresent and leads you headlong into the fray.

STVHS has energy to spare here, but with an album title like Weekend Weekend Weekend if it wasn't a fun, high energy album it'd be a total misnomer. Defintely a progression from where they left off, but they keep to the basics plenty enough so that you know who they are and where their going. You want rock n' roll? Well Straight to VHS is doing it with no shame and no apologies.

Here are a few preview tracks off the record:

Catch the CD release show: