When you do this job you have to be brutal at times; the current rejection to acceptance rate for submissions is 6:1, not based on quality but simply on the time available/numbers analysis.
And Slug Boys ticked all the wrong boxes. The band name reminded me of Joe and the Shitboys, an act from the Faroe Islands which demeans the real artists there (mainly female singer songwriters) while privately my house is under attack from slugs to the extent that I’ve adopted some of them as pets now.
And then there’s Young Boys, that Swiss football team that sounds like a nonce’s dream come true.
Not a good start.
But I did give the benefit of any doubt to Slug Boys and I’m sure I made the right call.
They bill themselves as a Scandi-Brit post punk band, based in Oslo – the east side I’m guessing – and this is the first single from their debut album.
The song is called ‘Glasnost’, is inspired by the continuing Russian invasion of Ukraine, the demise of anti-government dissident Alexei Navalny earlier this year, and celebrates the Russian people they have met that are resisting their government at great risk to themselves.
Unlike Slug Boys I can remember, because I’m old enough, the original Glasnost (transparency), also Perestroika, the economic reform movement, Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev with that peculiar birthmark on his forehead like a pigeon just crapped on him, and his meetings with Reagan in Iceland that ended the Cold War and for which he won the Nobel Peace Prize.
40 years later it might never have happened. Gorbachev (born out of ethnic Ukrainian stock) died a couple of years ago in “disgrace” for what he did; being considered to have sold out the Soviet Union and hence Russia.
It’s as if he might as well not have bothered and that’s the feeling you can’t escape from where the song is concerned.
It anchors on the unfulfilled promise of Glasnost and how that has translated into today’s situation where growing numbers of Russian inhabitants are powerless to stop a war which now affects them personally following Ukrainian counter attacks and which threatens to spiral further out of control as the use of long range missiles to be fired inside Russia gets closer.
Musically, it’s far more melodic than I expected and it channels a variety of bands and artists you might not be expecting such as The Sweet (‘Ballroom Blitz’), Arcade Fire’s ‘Month of May’, Carter USM (various tracks) and any amount of US hard rock/punk bands, led by New York Dolls.
All coincidentally I know but trust me, you will hear them.
And do give it a listen. You don’t have to be Johnny Rotten to like it and I guarantee it will grow on you. (They might well consider writing a song about him; he’s a changed character.)
The full album will be released next year, produced by Morten Øby, and they will be issuing more singles over the coming months.
The album will “defy categorisation within the Norwegian punk scene”… as it “toys with topics of love, death and frustration, conveyed through intense performances and a healthy dose of self-awareness and humour.”
Bring it on. It’s just what we need.
Find them on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100087130195048
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/slugboys_oslo/
