Review / 200 Words Or Less
Puppy and the Hand Jobs
I Hate Everything

Black Gladiator / Slovenly Recordings (2019) Andy Armageddon

Puppy and the Hand Jobs – I Hate Everything cover artwork
Puppy and the Hand Jobs – I Hate Everything — Black Gladiator / Slovenly Recordings, 2019

It'd be quite easy to write off (the fantastically named) Puppy and the Hand Jobs for making self-described “trash rock and roll.” Much as is the case with bands like The Dwarves however, while the band does produce vulgar rapid-fire punk music that seems to have been recorded as “hot” as possible, there’s an undeniably catchiness to their music. 2019’s I Hate Everything demonstrates this quite nicely.

Certainly tracks like “Cocksucker” and “Predator” would have some clutching their pearls (hell, the former track has a music video released through, gulp, Pornhub, and no, I'm not linking it), but midway through this 10-minute EP, the band uncorks “Plan 9” and shows that they can, in fact, deliver genuinely infectious tracks that aren’t overtly offensive. Perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised by this: frontman Jamie Paul Lamb had some of his previous work featured on the excellent We’re Loud compilation a few years back. I don’t know that I’d go so far as to call I Hate Everything a masterpiece, but it also isn’t remotely trying to be. It’s simply an energetic and fun album for those with, ahem, refined tastes.

Puppy and the Hand Jobs – I Hate Everything cover artwork
Puppy and the Hand Jobs – I Hate Everything — Black Gladiator / Slovenly Recordings, 2019

Recently-posted album reviews

Økse

Økse
Backwoodz Recordz (2024)

Økse is a gathering of brilliant, creative minds. The project's roster is pristine, with avant-jazz phenoms Mette Rasmussen on saxophone, Savannah Harris on drums, and Petter Eldh on bass/synths/samplers joining electronic artist and multidisciplinery extraordinaire Val Jeanty (of the fantastic Turning Jewels Into Water project.) The result is a multi-faceted work that stands on top of multiple sonic pillars, as … Read more

Final

What We Don't See
Room40 (2024)

Justin K. Broadrick's prolific output keeps giving, and may it never stop! The latest release is one of Broadrick's earliest projects, Final, which started in the power electronics tradition but since its resurrection in the early '90s, it is solidly standing in the ambient realm. Final's new full-length What We Don't See continues on the same trajectory, relishing drone's minimalistic … Read more

Bambies

Snotty Angels
Spaghetty Town Records, Wanda Records (2024)

The digital files I’ve been listening to as I write this review are all tagged to begin with the band name, e.g. “Bambies Teenage Night,” “Bambies Love Bite,” etc. It seems like a fitting metaphor. The Bambies play the kind of Ramones-adjacent garage-punk that’s often self-referential and in on their own joke. The Bambies play leather jacket-clad, straight-forward punky songs … Read more