Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
If there is no anger, if there is no passion, then what are we fighting for, what is the point of just purely existing in a world which we crave change, less futile celebrity, less pseudo fawning around non political giants, less of almost everything except passion; for if we cannot hope to change the world with a spirited response, we may as well have not crawled our way out of the hangover that is the Victorian era and given credence to the very idea of Punk.
Of course Punk doesn’t have to be angry, but it must mean something, it must have an idealism which is fresh, brimming with a sense of outrage and one in which perhaps collaboration is the key; like Jazz and Progressive Rock, it all depends on the thought. It is in such collaboration that the E.P. Tales From A Punk Rock Road Trip comes into its own, one that puts a smile on the face, the pint glass down and makes you want to join in the mass mosh and take a swipe at the inglorious and the puffed up at the same time.
The collaboration between Hooligan Crooners and the B-Leaguers, one of the great acts of Dutch Punk renaissance and arguably one of the finest phenomenon to ever come out of the beautiful county of Lincolnshire is to be savoured, to be enjoyed and whilst the split album is heavily dominated by Nan Hools, Clement Passant, Kouett Bugman and Barry Hools, the B Leaguers more than hold their own.
The songs that make up Tales From A Punk Rock Road Trip are so steeped in the ethic that they become larger than life, they are infectious and memorable and as World Famous (In A Little Town), the superb Voting For The Neighbours, It Goes Like This, Holy Shit!! and the gratifying Head Full of Chemicals are all so energetic, so reliable in their form and disposition to the ears of the listener that they could punch a hole in the fabric of craven and unwarranted obsession in the banal and the beige.
Tales From A Punk Rock Road Trip is a marvellous split album, one of fury and teasing brilliance; the trip ahead is one which doesn’t require a map, this is off road and full of adventure.
Ian D. Hall