When Punk first came around halfway through the seventies the band that made it accessible to the big audience were
THE SEX PISTOLS. Not because they were the roughest or heaviest, on the contrary. They surpassed everyone with their iconic debut
“Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols” because they mixed the Punk vibe with the Heavy Rock vibe (it wasn’t called Heavy Metal yet back then). They are still an inspiration to this day, as
POISON BOYS demonstrate, as they have adopted and duplicated the guitar sound perfectly.
Sleaze Rock became famous in the eighties, with the hair bands and the Pop Punk bands trying to be bad ass without challenging the authorities, but by just being smutty boys singing dirty lyrics. There are enough bands that did this the right way, and yes,
POISON BOYS have tried to emulate them as well.
POISON BOYS are a quartet that hails from Chicago, Illinois in the good old United States Of America and are trying to uphold the tradition of good Punk Rock mixed with a lot of Sleaze. In their own attempt to try and do it the right way, they have even taken on that seventy’s kind of sound on “Don’t You Turn On Me”, their second album (as far as I can ascertain). It has moments that you will hear sounds that are faintly reminiscent of
THE RAMONES, but also of
AC/DC. They also try to achieve a bit of the punch of
THE OFFSPRING and have a go at copying the feel of
GREEN DAY. But, and it’s a big one, they aren’t succeeding.
POISON BOYS haven’t even got ten percent of the quality or class of the bands mentioned. Or if they have, they are masters in covering it up.
As for the Sleaze part, apart from the obviously dirty guitar sound and questionable lyrics, they are missing the point there as well. On the other hands, there are some good tracks on
“Don’t You Turn On Me”. First off is the semi-acoustic song
“Sue Marie”, which could have easily come from
AEROSMITH. After that you get the beauty of
“I Was Cryin’”, which is a pure Rock Ballad, even with a saxophone in the mix. Now you get to hear what the
POISON BOYS are capable of. If only they would have showcased more of those kinds of songs. Then I might have thought about giving them the benefit of the doubt.
Songwriting: 5
Musicianship: 6
Memorability: 3
Production: 7
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