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 STRYCHNINE-
Born in a Bar (TKO
Records) I can imagine this disc being blared at a swap meet while a
woozy, drunken Hell’s Angel spins around with a half-full, half-crushed
beer can in one hand while viciously swinging a tailpipe around with his
other mitt. I can also picture
listening to these songs while watching a bunch of horses kick each other.
Anyhow, these fellas play ham-fisted, blustery muthafuckin’ hard
rockin’ punk rock. I think
my favorite cut on this 13-song release is probably “No Vyktum No
Crime.” It blasts along
goodstyle while railing against bullshit minimum sentencing standards for
pot smokers and growers. A
federal prisoner convicted for just such an offense actually sent them the
lyrics for this one and they put them to music, and I admire the shit out
of them doing that. And to go
off track for just an itty-bitty moment, when Johnny Cash played at San
Quentin one time he did the same thing with lyrics from a con who was
incarcerated there. Johnny
didn’t know how to read the music the guy sent him so he just wrote a
simple tune of his own for it. The
result was a surprisingly beautiful yet very humble song called “I
Don’t Know Where I’m Bound.” But
back to Strychnine: They play no-nonsense, sincere and sometimes playful
songs that more often than not rock like a sumbitch.
I also like the fact that a lot of the lyrics printed out in the
sleeve come with song notes written by the singer.
This helped me understand where he was coming from a lot better
than I would have otherwise. How
courteous for a mofo claiming to be born in a bar! –Ben Hunter
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