10 Past 12 / Unless You Try (2021)
You may or may not know that I am a gigantic Snuff fan. They are one of my very favorite bands in the world and I usually mention them, Leatherface and Rocket From The Crypt as the three most important bands to me. Like John Reis from Rocket and Frankie Stubbs from Leatherface, I tend to follow Duncan Redmonds from Snuff to whatever other project he has brewing. Guns N Wankers is probably the most famous of his other bands, but Billy No Mates is the one that has the most non-Snuff records out.
S.F. Sourdough is the fourth Billy No Mates album and this time Duncan is joined by luminaries of the US punk rock scene. On this recording are Joey Cape from Lagwagon, Sergie Loobkoff from Samiam/Knapsack and some guy named Chicken. He's from a band called Dead to Me that I'm not familiar with. I have to say, I was especially intrigued by what Duncan and Sergie would do together as they both have some much great work under their belts and both have a really distinct point of view in their punk rock. In that regard I was a little let down.
This album sounds pretty much like the other Billy No Mates albums. That's not really a bad thing or a complaint, but I mostly hear Duncan's point of view on these songs. I like his point of view, so that's good, but unless you told me Sergie was on this record, I would have never known. That said, we have a bunch of nice melodic punk songs that have similarities with some of the more modern Snuff albums and some others that are more unique to what Billy No Mates has cranked out in the past.
It's a good record and it's nice to have something new that has come out in 2021 that I really dig. Even though this is technically from 2010...
Billy No Mates - S.F. Sourdough LP:
https://snuffuk.bandcamp.com/album/s-f-sourdough-2
