China Shop Bull: Rave to the Grave

Posted by jamie on Jul 15, 2011

China Shop Bull

Rave to the Grave – Code 7, 2011

15^th July 2011

 

Jamie

 

Let’s get something straight: the whole reason Bananatown exists, and, hence, that I’m sitting writing this is that I love ska, punk and ska/punk.  China Shop Bull have got all of that and more, which, for this, makes them absolutely perfect.  A good mash-up never hurt anyone, after all.

 

A side-effect of that, though, is that they’re getting all sorts of coverage from other sites and magazines and that they’re playing all sorts of festivals right now.  So other folk are out there writing that CSB are brilliant and refreshing and exciting because they’re “not just another copycat Reel Big Fish”, or all about clichés or Hawaiian shirts, or whatever.  Let’s just be sorry for those people that they’ve never experienced the Sonic Boom Six, BabyHead, King Prawn, Beat the Red Light, Mouthwash, etc, etc, etc. and then move on, shall we?

See, the thing is, if you ask me, that there’s nothing wrong with bands or music that don’t push the proverbial envelope, or whatever you want to call it.  I mean, can you ever have too much two-tone?  Or third wave?  Or trad?

What we’ve got here, though, is something bold, different, and refreshing.  Well, it would be refreshing if it wasn’t so exhilaratingly, exhaustingly mindblowing.  

Rave to the Grave is a gnarly, dirty, mash-up of dub/dubstep/punk/rave/rap/rock thing.  It takes that idea of going to every tent at a festival and nicking the speakers.  But just imagine you got all those speakers back and put them in a circle and then stood in the middle and turned the bass right up.  It’s sort of like that, but bigger.  It’s got giant wob-wob-wobs and dirty great big guitar riffs, a back-of-throat punk rock vocal and an angry white-man rap vocal that’s a little like Sum 41, but in a good way.  Think of the Sums’ Does This Look Infected? in a baking tray with SB6’s remix album Arcade Perfected and heated up.  It’s a bit like that, but in a squat or in a field instead of in an oven.  It’s gigantic, and a scary in places, and the rest of it’s like a the most surreal, most adrenaline-powered, most euphoric, most powerful and probably the dirtiest party you’ve ever been to.  Just in compact-disc form.  You’ll love it if you’re brave.  If not, it might just eat you.