I don’t care whether its Hanoi Rocks, The Rolling Stones, The E-St Band, or whoever. If you want to show everyone that anything goes and your music is going to be a good time, then stick a Saxophone riff over your rock n roll. Those three bands – as disparate as they are – are all invoked here.
Right from the off of “Rip It Up” – the opening song here, then, simply and completely, this is music that cannot fail to make you smile: “Looking for a fight on a Saturday Night,” goes the vocal. And there’s a feel of a gang about this trio.
“Rivers At Midnight” – “I go down to the river at midnight” says the hook and it sounds so nefarious that you sort of think you’d best leave them to it, unless you’re that way inclined – is a real stomper. Real dirty blues, primal stuff.
They follow this with something totally different. At least on the surface, “Sharpshooter” is a little more punk tinged, but actually, scratch away the veneer and its just as filthy and dark. This is just rock n roll. A pinch of Jim Jones Revue maybe, but its also why you can’t say they are another Urban Voodoo Machine. Despite their similar “melting pot” approach, this is a more pure sound.
“Flame Of Love” boasts the kind of riff that on one hand screams “indie floorfiller in about 2000”, but on the other is like “Pump It Up” rebooted. Then, of course, you just forget all this, and the hook “she’s gonna burn you in the flame of love” is in your head.
This is just six tracks – around 20 minutes – but there’s an astonishing amount packed in here. “The Way The West Was Won” sounds like its made by an acid casualty in the 1960s, but it pulses with an energy that those things so often lack. And the whole anything goes thing is underlined by the last one. “Nothing To Lose”, is breakneck fun, fizzing, popping and grooving.
I owe Kings Pistol an apology on two counts. First, this is the second in a series of EP’s. I missed the first one, I’ll rectify that – goodness me, this is too good not to investigate the band further. And second, when I saw they were from Crewe, I spent ages thinking if I knew any other bands from that way (the best I could do was I once saw King King there and FM guitarist Jim Kirkpatrick lives nearby) and then I spent a good while working out if I could get a pun about trainspotting in there (it’s a football antipathy, don’t ask!) when actually, the band deserve way better.
The final word, you know, belongs to them. On their Twitter it simply says: “Rock n’ Rollerz.” And you know, that’s basically it. Glorious, carefree rock n roll with something fresh to say is rare. Especially with the rulebook ripped up. And all those things are right here.
Rating 9/10
