Pot Sounds

'Ten reasons why Pot Sounds is one of the great albums of 2001:

One, the Surf Sluts are from the surfers' paradise of York.
Two, the title and the sleeve are the best parody of a classic album since Zappa's We're Only In It For The Money.
Three, track one is called Papa Oo Mow Mow.
Four, track two is called (Like Wow Wow) She's A Mau Mau.
Five, Greasy Chicken is a paean to internationalism and universal humanity on the theme that, wherever you go, people will eat greasy chicken.
Six, singer Mark Carlyle's principle musical inspiration appears to be Bobby 'Boris' Pickett of Monster Mash fame.
Seven, anyone could learn to play the guitar parts in roughly 12 hours - beat that, Bert Weedon.
Eight, they use the lyric 'bop showaddywaddy'.
Nine, Dragster nicks the riff from Ace of Spades.
And 10, trust me. It just is.'

Ally Fogg - The Big Issue in the North, Sept 3 - 9 2001

Degenerate mayhem in the form of surf/psychobilly punk. The Surf Sluts hail from York and add their own filthy flavour to obscure surf b-side covers. They have some of their own tracks also, some raucous, some cool and mellow. Particularly good are the instrumental tracks such as 'Dragster' and 'The Rattler' that recapture Dick Dale or The Ventures cruising on base speed.

Moving from the sublime to the ridiculous - such as 'Greasy Chicken' which is feverishly hilarious , or 'Dry Dock In Doha' - a track about a Singaporean bringing goods through customs in Qatar (I think). Musically you cannot fault the Surf Sluts, they're tight and professional and have their chaos well structured. It's generally fun but it genuinely is great surf music albeit performed by northern white trash rednecks whose music is guaranteed to make you dance until you're sick and in a cold sweat.

Ollie - www.astro-zombie.com