No need for just the US girl garage-punk bands like Vivian Girls, Finally Punk, and Explode Into Colors to have all the fun, right? Hailing from the UK, the female trio Wetdog has been making a splash just as much across the pond as their gender-equivalents here in The States. With an uneasy, off-kilter feel that you’re positive is going to come crashing down at any second, every song on their Captured Tracks 7” somehow winds up rescuing itself from total collapse while getting you caught up in the whirlwind in the process.
Like most of these garage punk 7”s, Lower Leg tries to squeeze as much music as you can into a 7” double-sided piece of wax. Consisting of a lengthy single A-side track and a pair of sub 2-minute songs on the B, you’ll be done spinning the record for the third time before you’ve really understood what you’ve just listened to. Although relatively tame in comparison to some of their noisy songs, the super-poppy title track still has some bite to it. One second you’re chanting along to the final syllables of each couplet (“The lower leg’s fine / the lower leg’s NOT FINE”), and then *BAM* you’re hit by a tempo change and some intense bass playing before being thrown back down to the slower-paced sing-along verses.
Now the first B-side track, entitled “The Burry Man”, will be more familiar to long-time Wetdog fans. Chalk-full of discordant chords and bizarre insane asylum-like shouts of “Like I Said” and “BAAAaaaahhhhh” which are more than enough to make you feel slightly uncomfortable, it’s the noise-filled counter to “Lower Leg”. Taking cues from both the tracks before it, “How Sweet the Sound” seems to blend both pop & noise, alternating between the two in this song fit for a carnival ride.
You can check out “Lower Leg” as well as “Jane Bowles”, one of my favorite track of theirs, below. If you like their stuff, head over to C/T to cop a 7” or to Angular Records to snag their LP Frauhaus! (can’t seem to find a US distro for that one…)
Also, the guys at PodOmatic pieced together a nice 40 minute mix of Wetdog material that is sure to give you a better introduction to the band, so check it out here.
[Shout out to Adult Acid for introducing me to band]
