One of my favorite part of writing about an album every single day for the past two and a half years (this is #844 for the record) is when you stumble upon a band that you’ve never heard of before but one that still sounds so incredibly familiar. And about halfway into the second song you realize why you’re getting a bit of deja vu– they sound very similar to some of your favorite bands. And where it gets especially fun is when they sound like a band that preceded them as well as a band that followed them.
That was my experience with Leatherface’s Mush, a searing album delivered at breakneck pace that explores all of the finest that underground hardcore punk has to follow. Immediately you hear the Motörhead influence in the lead vocals from Frankie Stubbs (who much like Lemmy sounds like he’s been chewing on glass and heartbreak for the past two decades). And then you hear how they clearly influenced Hot Water Music (especially their 2002 magnum opus Caution) with the fast-driving rhythm section and their ability to carry a similar fusion of worn-in grit and harmonic melody. And all of a sudden you’ve connected the dots and found another little overlooked branch of the musical family tree, a sort of musical lineage of sorts, and found a throughline from a rock band from the 80’s that extends all the way to the modern day.
It’s great when that happens. And Mush is certainly an album that I’ll be returning to many more times over the next few months as it already seems to be finding a way to burrow it’s way deep down into my soul.
Standout Songs: “I Want the Moon”, “Pandora’s Box”, “Not Superstitious”, “In The Real World”, “Dead Industrial Atmosphere 2”
