It isn’t every day that you get an email from a man called Mike Trash. All it said was this: Spring 2021 The Erotics went right back at it in the studio to make a follow up to 2020’s blaster piece ‘ Let’s Kill Rock N Roll ‘, once again with the mighty Don Fury producing.
“This time around they bring you the slamming, loud, and raw ep “Ride It To Death”.
Now, he’s a man of few words is Trash but he doesn’t need to be, because this speaks for itself. He knew had a cracker in the can, you might say.
A couple of years ago a friend of mine connected her music up to my car, and the man who thought he knew shit, knew nothing at all, shrinking a little more with each 70s obscure punk rock song she played.
Well, in your face everyone, because let me tell you, right here right now that if this was any further up my street this EP would be named “Andy’s Road”. I haven’t put 35 years of work into loving bands like Dog’s D’Amour and The Yo-Yos not to spot kindred spirits.
These five songs are lo-slung 80s infused brilliance, as sleazy as all hell, as catchy as the flu and as cool as The Stones. I mean, Christ, chuck in a Thin Lizzy guitar solo (like there is a bit on “The Wolves Are Howling” or a Maiden gallop (can’t find any of them to be fair) or a Wildhearts lick and you’d basically have a full house on MV bingo.
“Scream Like A Demon” does a beautiful line in Faster Pussycat type stuff – and you kind of hope that these are the boys that still get your number off bathroom walls, as it were – the title track even gets bonus points for starting with a Georgia Satellites style riff before partying like its 1986.
That might come from the presence of Fury, who has after all worked with just about all the NYC Punk greats and if there’s a thin line between Punk and, the New York Dolls, say, then The Erotics are staying just about on the rock n roll side of the street.
You do keep coming back to the work of Tyla, though, the bard of Wolverhampton appears to be stamped all over this to be honest, but never more than on the glorious “Bless This Heart”, genuinely brilliant, it is the type of life affirming stuff that is why you love rock n roll in the first place.
“Can I Sit Next To You Girl?!” (and its intentions are innocent I am sure_, is a pure boogie, like “my baby is like a piano, if she ain’t upright she’s grand” type boogie (if you know, you know) and it’s but another mighty slice of brilliant music.
There’s bound to be a load of po-faced pricks who reckon they’ve heard all this before. You might have, but you know what? So have I and so have the band. Just that Erotics are too busy riding it to death (and “it” is probably anything!) to care.
Rating 9/10