Guttermouth

Guttermouth fondly remember the days when punk rock used to piss people off and meant more than a couple of chords and a spiffy hairdo. While every radio-friendly punk band misses their girlfriends or responsible government, like Dead Kennedys and the Dead Milkmen before them, Guttermouth continue to be the genre’s conscience on Eat Your Face by reminding the scenesters and tastemakers to not take themselves too seriously. Every track on Eat Your Face is a not-so-straight-faced jab at mainstream culture, from nascent surfers ("Surfs Up Asshole”), to the government ("Party Of Two”) to the record industry’s blanching of punk rock’s sound and style ("The Next Faux Mohican”) that blows a raspberry square in the face of their subjects. The results are a piece of comic artistry — no one in rock right now is so willing to call a spade a spade as Guttermouth. Singer Mark Adkins handily dispatches all of his subjects with equal amounts of dismissive humour and vitriol while a dedicated rhythm section drives his sentiments home with some of the snottiest punk of the band’s storied career. Guttermouth have always survived on their ability to articulate their disgust with all of the things that annoy them (which is just about everything) with a shit-eating grin and have continued to hone that skill on Eat Your Face. Twelve years on, Guttermouth stand as proof that, at least on a small scale, punk rock’s original spirit is still alive and well.