Following the lead of New England greats like the Queers and the Leftovers come Portsmouth New Hampshire’s Guts. Singer/guitarist Geoff Useless writes the songs while bassist/singer Nate Doyle holds down the rhythm section with drummer Rick Orcut. Recorded at Smart Studios by Justin Perkins with production help and guest vocals from Ben Weasel, the tunes on “Let It Go” combine melody, aggression and a sense of urgency in a way that every pop punk band aims for but so few nail – The Guts’ take the direct, honest approach to playing music that is so often lacking in the fashion conscious punk bands on the magazine covers. They aren’t very pretty and they don’t move in all the right circles but they know how to write a kick-ass tune and remind you that after all the hype has died down and all the bells and whistles cease to amuse, there’s still nothing like a good old-fashioned kick-ass punk rock band.
Track Listing:
1. Blackout
2. Let It Go
3. Cigarettes And Valentines
4. Do What You Do
5. Crazy
6. She’s Gone
7. The Reason
8. Heartbreaker
9. Cold Sweat
10. Always And Forever W/ Halie Bullit
11. Don’t Wanna Be
12. Invisible Guy
13. Love Love Love W/ Ben Weasel
14. Down The Drain
Reviews:
By “The Wire”
“The Portsmouth punk scene gained regional recognition with the emergence of The Queers in the early 1980s. Later that decade, The Bruisers formed, fronted by vocalist Al Barr, now of Dropkick Murphys fame. Both bands endured through much of the ’90s, keeping Portsmouth afloat in the collective punk consciousness.
Al Barr and Joe Queer are still touring the nation, but they have relinquished their reign over Portsmouth to younger faces in the 21st century. None of those faces are more familiar around town than guitarist Geoff Palmer, bassist Nate Doyle and drummer Rick Orcutt, who collectively make up The Guts. With their latest album due out soon, the trio has climbed another rung on the punk-rock ladder.
The Guts recorded much of “Let it Go” last fall at Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin. The studio is owned by Garbage drummer Butch Vig, and it has been the birthplace of albums by Nirvana, The Smashing Pumpkins and Sonic Youth. The Guts also signed on with indie punk label Rally Records.
With these credentials, “Let it Go” is perhaps the most highly anticipated Guts album to date. The band took advantage by doing what it knows how to do best, speeding through 14 power-pop tunes without ever so much as tapping the brakes.
The disc begins with “Blackout,” which introduces listeners to both the band’s hyper-pop sound and its members’ reckless lifestyles: “Every day I wake up with a pounding in my head (I’m in a blackout and I don’t know what I did). I call in sick to work and then I spend the day in bed (I’m in a blackout and I don’t know what I did).”
The call-and-response-style lyrical repetition is punctuated by power chords and heavy drums, with boyish vocals evoking a mischievous tone. Palmer and Doyle share vocal duties on the disc, with a guest appearance from Hallie Bullit, of The Unlovables.
Later songs get a bit gushier, hovering around the bitter theme of love’s maddening trials. Variations on the topic emerge in numerous tracks, including “Cigarettes and Valentines,” “Heartbreaker,” “She’s Gone,” “Always and Forever,” “Down the Drain” and the title track. But the execution of these lovesick lyrics comes at a racing pace that never really slows.
A cover of the Queers “Love Love Love” is thrown into the mix, along with a song about the darkness and obscurity that surrounds the abuse of needle-injected drugs (“Cold Sweat”). “Invisible Guy” includes a raw punk disclaimer: “We ain’t out to save the world, I want the sex, the drugs, the money and the girls.”
