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Album Review: Main Street Brats - Main Street Brats

11 October 2012 | 4:07 pm | Brendan Telford

There is so much spunk inherent in Main Street Brats that it’s bound to get a thrashing every time the night is young, a slab needs to be drunk and the hunt is on.

Unabashed rock pigs Main Street Brats have dished out 13 spiky slabs of punk sleaze on their self-titled debut, and it's a whole lot of straight-up dumb fun.

The vocal interplay between guitarists Reuben Ham and Hannah Tilbrook is evident from opener 375, the band tearing through the tracks with soused abandon. The twin-guitar, no-bass attack amps the voltage, if not the tension, but that's the point – it's meant to be listened to as loud as possible. Swinging from ball-tearers such as 18 Hours and the feverish Gimme Some Strutter to the '60s swing of Movie Show and slow-grind swagger of She's A Whore and Drinkin' In The Gutter (with Tilbrook really hitting her straps here), the band wallow in the beer dregs of punk rock's leather-clad degenerates, and for the most part such depravity rubs the right way.

The recordings hold onto the live feel of the trio as much as can be, and as such sounds pretty immediate. Yet with many bands of their ilk the sweaty thrill from partaking in these songs comes from seeing them live and being showered in their spit (this is possibly heightened by the dampened effect of Andrew Thompson's oft-deafening drumming on some of these tracks). That said, there is so much spunk inherent in Main Street Brats that it's bound to get a thrashing every time the night is young, a slab needs to be drunk and the hunt is on.