Cool Jerks is a band from Leeds, UK, and has been around since
2015/2016.
I don't have much details about these guys' musical background but they
sure have dirtied their boots for a while in the DIY punk hardcore scene
before deciding to shake their butts together on the other side of the mosh
pit.
This 6-track demo tape released by the band first in 2016 and by TapeTalks a few months later is a little gem of deeply-rooted-in-the-present-world modern punk... and especially in the state of the UK of course. So Cool Jerks brings us back to the roots of the first wave of Bristish punk at a time when the youth was facing bleak times and bleaker future (hu if only they knew how things look sooo much worse now).
And our dear friends Iggy and David dressed like what could be modern
hispters on the tape cover confirm the band deep respect for the classics
(but also their will to bring the spirit of their music in our modern
age?).
But don't get me wrong, Cool Jerks is not at all a bunch of
nostalgic paunchy fuckers, they live here and now and have a lot to say
about it. The sympathetic morons have chosen a smart, energetic, quite
angry but definitely bleak type of punk to express their feelings: rolling
bass lines, sharp guitar riffs, shouting vocals hesitating between anger
and despair, fast and catchy melodies... all ingredients of punk hits
indeed.
Yes there is something of American hardcore punk but with a big
piece of England inside, and the mix is an amazing success!
A great demo!
Well well well with Patriots, their new EP/tape released in 2017 on TapeTalks (once again), our favourite jerks don't sound so cool any more... determined to frontally attack the right wing scums which have been polluting their country's society for decades now....
Patriots, Minimum Wage, New Opiate,
Affable Fascism... the four songs' titles say it all: the political
and social situation in the UK is shit and it's still time to scream about
it!
Cool Jerks denounces, attacks, bites and mocks this terrible
movement which lead to Brexit and social disasters... and they do it
really well.
Mostly mid-tempo and quite heavy with sudden bursts of sarcastic anger
("I love working for minimum wage!"), these songs are here to push
right where it hurts, using British cynicism and dark humor to make their
points...
Reminding me sometimes of the surfy parts of the Dead Kennedys,
the guys from Leeds have the same political involvement in their
music as Jello's bands have and there are worse role models...
This is GREAT!
Two years and half later, in mid 2020, Cool Jerks releases
its first LP on Night Versus Day Records (label's first
release).
With 12 songs including Minimum Wage (from Patriots) and a
shorter version of Eh (from the demo), the band keeps putting into
music the bleakness of the modern British society.
England... the title says it all, this album is a "situational analysis" of what
the Tory party and unleashed capitalism have made of the UK...
Starting with We live in Hell, it's clear that
Cool Jerks is going to draw us an
extremely grim and bitter
picture... a picture made of the improved recipe of mid tempo punk rock
already quite mastered on their previous records... The grimness of
post-punk, the heavy anger of hardcore punk, the smartness of the whole history of the British
political punk scene...
Tory Paradise, The Butchers Apron (another political charge
against the far right), Ordinary People (great song about the
mediocrity of the middle class), England is Burning, You... the
band has a lot to say, a lot to be angry about and I can only deeply relate to it.
Other bands with the same expression of anger and despair about modern
England would be
Bad Breeding
or
Glib
(with a lot rawer sound) among others (the modern British DIY punk scene is full of
them these days).
Modern Man is probably my favourite song, a blunt description of
life in an almost completely tertiary urban network on a super tensed and
heavy mid-tempo song structure... a lot of us can relate to this...
Yes this band is great at describing the depressing reality of their country but they are also extremely good at writing energetic, super tensed but well balanced punk songs... I struggle a bit with accurate comparisons.. would that may be why this album is so good?
In a nutshell Cool Jerks is delivering a beautiful mix of blunt
but smart political charges deeply rooted in the bleak reality of the
modern world with a super tensed but catchy modern British punk rock...
the perfect punk album ? one of the best of 2020 for sure!
You can listen to Cool Jerks on Rien à Faire #15.
N,J'Oi!
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