LET'S DETONATE - The Peelers (Beercan Records)
There's much to love about this record on a formidable little Chicago label celebrating its third release, and the band's second album. The Peelers play a timeless form of punk rock that defies 
categorising.
Their high-tension wire guitars recall post-punk when they're not just tearing down the sonic highway, hell for leather. The Peelers have a tough but pliable engine room (driven constantly forward by ex-Gaza Stripper Cory Stateler) and a soulful but in-your-face singer in Neil Bagwell. And of course their songs rock.
Speaking of which, bear with me if I have some titles wrong because I strongly suspect the CD slick tracking is fucked up. Songs like the anthemic "Saor City" (with its leather-clad Jerry Nolan beat) and the paranoid TV-induced ode to kleptomania, "WI Don't Want To", have a nervy energy that puts The Peelers on a different plane to your standard punk thrashers. "The Guru" shows they can do straight-up, boy-wants-girl '60s rock as well as anyone. "Dig Me" is a fuzz-bass propelled lurch.
The album flags a little after such a headstrong opening but the smut-flavoured "Immoral Minority" puts us back on track with a bassline hard enough to bounce a baseball off. The taughtest guitar solo of the album (presumably from main songwriter Adam Scott) is reserved for the closer, "Brand New Thing", a stop-start singalong rocker that hovers over glam territory. If you recognised "Something For Your Love" it's a Mullens cover and the only non-original on the record.
I can't tell you much more about these guys but as the modest and succinct one-sheet says, the record does its own talking. The Peelers did win Best Band in a Chicago street mag in 2002 and have shared stages with the Supersuckers, The Riverboat Gamblers, The BellRays and the Vibrators,which says a lot.
The cover art's a bit cryptic (I would have gone with Mr Potatohead copping a skinning from Jeffrey Dahmer if it'd been my choice) but what's inside is, er, acridly a-peeling. My only other comment is to say 'Book me in for the live show'. I reckon it'd be pretty damn good and a shitload of fun.–
The Barman
