I've been revisiting some old favourites lately..
The Distillers- Self Titled (2000)
Brody Dalle's animalistic, visceral, charging vocals reign supreme on the L.A. band's debut, released on the peerless Epitaph label in the-year-too-thousand. Burning through 14 tracks in under forty minutes, the band prsent a battering wall of solid, four-to-the-floor, high-paced, modern punk. Frantic three-chord-progression guitar and speedy, rolling basslines plaster the classic 90's Californian punk sound all over the record. But the ingredient that makes this album, and its equally impressive follow-up, 2003's "Sing Sing Death House", force you to stop and take notice, is former-Melburnian Dalle's ball-tearingly raw vocal delivery. Wailing out powerful tales of [surprise, surprise] disaffection, troubled adolescence, anger, pain, and urban decay, Brody relentlessly spits lyrics in the listener's direction with such harsh passion it is impossible [for me at least] not to believe this album. Opening track Oh Serena, sets the tone for the rest of the record, with Dalle at her menacing best on the delivery of the chorus. The release goes from strength to strength, with the snarling, talky verses and urgent chorus of LA Girl, the sheer brutality and break-neck pace of killer 1:15 cut Girl Fixer, and the searing screams of Black Heart "Fuck!" just a few of the many highlights. The hidden track, tucked away at the end of the last cut, is well worth searching out. A demo-recording of the track Young Girls, we get Brody in solo mode, accompanied only by her own slow, jangling guitar, and her heart wrenching, yearning vocal performance is just something else "we were young girls/in a small world/I'm on your doorstop man/ringin' your bell again/ringin' your bell again" (The track was eventually re-recorded with the full band and included on their second album). A classic album to file in your "teenage angst" file; punk the way it should be done, kids.
The Distillers - Girlfixer
