Review: The 99 Degree - Boot Hill Surf Club

The 99 Degree have appeared on these pages before, an interview on the back of their ace 'Dead Or Alive' video (read it here.) As much as I seriously dug 'Dead Or Alive' I felt slightly fustrated that there was only the single track from these guys - their demented take of psycho/surf garage was something of which I wanted to hear much, much more. Well, that has now been redressed with the release of their 'Boot Hill Surf Club' EP - a raucous affair with 4 tracks of equally demented surf-y garage punk with influences drawn from disparate sources and, more importantly, it is damn good!

'The Banshee' sees us thrown headlong into a garage punk stormer with plenty of twang that brings to mind a punkier Man Or Astro Man? or Shadowy Men From A Shadowy Planet. The reverb on the guitar is deep giving things an authentic surf vibe but the attitude and the verve is pure garage. 'The Ballad Of Henry Newton Brown' (a Sheriff turned bandit in the old west - true story) sees thing stake a turn for the Morricone..the vocals are pure Spaghetti western - harmonised and resonant - and matched by the music with thumping tribal drums and more reverbed guitar. Lyrically it takes its cue from Nick Cave in its darkness and subject matter...excellent stuff! 'Losing My Mind' is what the White Stripes should have sounded like, if they were good! This is a real ripsnorter of a garage track with loud, fuzzy guitars and crashing drums. 'The Pusher', about a semi-mythical serial killer stalking the waterways of Manchester, is pure Tom Waits...from the deep, husky, whisky-soaked vocals to the acoustic guitar and maybe even a touch of Mexican Narco-ballads...it is deep, down and dirty and exceptionally dark..the last seconds see a cacophonous climax to the song which only seems to add to the atmosphere. On the whole it put me in mind of The Dead Kennedy's 'The Prey' if performed by Waits.

'Boot Hill Surf Club' is the work of a group who plough their own furrow..it would be easy to knock out an EP of straight-up garage punk for these guys but that isn't their style.....they play with formats and styles, fitting the subject matter to a particular approach, and by god, does it work. There is humour, drama and spittle in this EP and I, for one, wanna hear more! The EP is available on iTunes, Spotify etc...just search for The 99 Degree....it's well worth it!