Backyard Babies

The influence of Southern California’s Social Distortion has never been more obvious. Maybe that opening slot the Backyard Babies had not too long ago was a good thing as it’s given the majority of their songs a stronger thrust, at least in a live capacity as this release indicates. It’s the closest they’ve come to actually slipping out of the shadow of lead singer Dregen’s other accomplishment: the Hellacopters, a band who he helped found whilst instigating some downtime for the Babies a few years back. Delivering ten tracks culled from their three studio efforts (released in North America as the Tinnitus compilation) and five tunes yet to see our shores, the set is undeniably tight, delivered with the raucousness of the Supersuckers’ most relevant period and the frenetic attack of Blitzpeer. Beefed-up with a thicker backbone than the most aggressive carnivore, yet boasting enough slinky (or is that drunken?) swagger to rival Scandinavian dirt bags Silver, this punk rock’n’roll is clearly refined, offering up potential that maybe you can polish a turd to some extent.