Given that Minneapolis gave us Husker Du, The Replacements, and Babes in Toyland, among many other greats, it isn’t surprising to find bands doing raucous, alternative, punk-infused, scuzzy rock ‘n’ roll like The Del-Viles does here. And It’s Just a Kiss-Off, the band’s recorded-live-and-in-a-day debut long-player, isn’t just a potted history of that city’s underground scene but a dark, dangerous wander over to the wrong side of the tracks of Western popular music in general.
So, if ‘The City’ is the sort of raw, ragged and raging proto-punk that those mighty musical deities, The MC5, would have beaten you to the ground to steal for their own show, not least its unabashed anti-establishment rabble-rousing lyrical call to arms, this is by no means the template. But it does separate the men from the boys!
Immediately following, ‘What You Got’s’ timeless twelve-bar marries basic blues with bluster and bombast, as if Robert Johnson had reached that crossroads and sold his soul to The Gun Club rather than the devil, arguably a more terrifying scenario, and the spaciousness of ‘Don’t Hang Around’ gives you a chance to fully comprehend Gabs Semansky’s mellifluous and melodic basslines.
‘Skeleton’ is a Waitsian groove sped up, fleshed out and turned up to eleven…twelve, even; ‘I Hate You’ is what punk always should have sounded like (ie rock and roll as a sonic threat) rather than the fashion parade, pose and sloganeering that it quickly became and ‘River Seine’ throws a curveball to end, a surprisingly delicate piece of acoustica that sounds not unlike an R.E.M demo…and I mean that in the most positive of ways.
Raucous rhythm and bruised blues are back on the menu, baby!
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