It seems like a lifetime ago, but it was on March 24th this year that I wrote these words: “You’d imagine [that] …..this band is going to plug in and get loud. I doubt, though, they’ll ever sound sleazier than right here.”
That was my conclusion to the review of an EP by The Suicide Notes called “Pleasures Of Despair”. It was an acoustic thing, but goodness, it sounded so wonderfully filthy.
I put the review on Twitter, and got a reply from the band that said: “dunno mate, we are pretty sleazy, loud too.”
So fast forward almost three months, and the more eagle eyed of you might have noticed that this EP is also called “Pleasures Of Despair”. Two of the songs are even the same – “Ragdoll” and “Smoke It Like A Cigarette” – the attitude definitely is, but there’s one thing different: this time, its loud rock n roll, baby.
“Black Dog Howlin’” it starts with Billy Tee, well, howling, is all the fun you can handle. Like a scarily good sleaze rock band from The Cathouse in 1986 (the Cathouse always seemed more nefarious than The Rainbow and these boys are nefarious as it gets.)
“…Cigarette” is proof that a great song is a great song, whatever. And there’s no point not mentioning Dogs D’Amour at this point. You don’t sound this much like them and not know. DD are the great underground band of British Rock, and there’s every reason to suppose that The Suicide Notes are the same thing.
Alex Holmes (billed as “vintage six string snarl” not simply a guitarist) plays a blinder to go along with Tee’s vocals. On “On The Rocks” he sounds like he’s gargling a Whiskey with a gravel chaser, and bass man Damien Beale (“Southpaw Bottom End”) understands that he’s bringing sex. Not just any kind either, the illegal in most places kind.
On my review of the acoustic EP I picked out “Ragdoll” as the best song on offer. It is here too. A word of warning, if you aren’t walking around going “ragdoll, you’re looking pretty, pretty” seconds after hearing the song, you’d best get your money back. Or check a pulse. Either’s cool.
The Suicide Notes are the band that those of us that love filthy, sleazy rock have been waiting for, whether they are going in bareback like on the acoustic, or fully armoured like here, their brilliance cannot be hidden, or indeed overstated.
Rating 9/10
