SKEETCH: FINDING THE BRIGHT SIDE OF PUNK ROCK
ALBUM REVIEW | Skeetch – Sunny Side Of Shitty Town by Craig Harston
Hailing from Leipzig, Germany, Skeetch have been doing the rounds for a while now with several EP’s under their belt (‘The Park’ and ‘Danger Zone’, both from 2022, and 2023’s ‘Skeetch Or Die’) and recently signed to up and coming punk label Punkerton Records ahead of their debut full length, ‘Sunny Side Of Shitty Town’. Blending an old school skate punk sound with modern sensibilities, Skeetch – drummer Richard Meyer, guitarist Tom Kuhnel, bassist Markus Ackert and singer Max Schlegel – find the fun in punk rock while not losing sight of what they’re trying to say with their lyrics.
Completely unafraid to wear their influences on their sleeves, ‘Sunny Sound Of Shitty Town’ kicks off with a very Offspring-esque intro (basically, sit back and enjoy!) before launching into the nostalgic and brutal ‘Born 2 Late’. The song has a guitar riff straight out of the 90’s and highlights the generational divide the four-piece finds themselves in, referencing many of their heroes (Bad Religion, Green Day, Ramones, Sex Pistols etc) along the way before the immensely powerful refrain over the bridge; “And if there’s one thing, one thing that I’ve learned, is that a punk rock song won’t ever change the world, but it changed me, and this is far from over, punk’s not dead, it’s just old and hungover”. It’s a profound sentiment that represents how far the punk scene has come since its inception in the late ‘70s.
Thankfully, the rest of the album more than lives up to the opening track. ‘Spicy Memories’ is a very relatable song that puts its focus into how many of our memories shape us and has some truly thundering choruses and a great back and forth on the vocals (“Spicy, spicy!”) while ‘Talkin’ Talkin’ takes a more hardcore approach to its structure and includes some very angry lyrics aimed at people who need to get a life and not talk about people behind their backs (we all know at least one person like that!). It’s closing moments get pretty heavy, too, taking on a metal edge with its guitars.
Elsewhere, ‘Real Ones’ laments ‘fairweather friends’, dedicating itself to the ‘real ones’ who stick around at the best and worst of times, featuring some crunchy guitar riffs from Kuhnel, an excellent breakdown that includes plenty of ‘woah’s’ and a chorus that is going to go down a storm when played live! ‘Sunny Side’ meanwhile, is a very pop punk affair with it’s focus on trying to find the bright side of the everyday world we inhabit and is later joined by the ‘bubblegum thrash’ of ‘Loose Thoughts’ towards the end of the album (which, I kid you not, features a ‘rap’ from an alien acquaintance called Fred!)
Not shy about mixing things up with their sound, Skeetch slow things down and get serious on the campfire singalong of ‘Hello Mr. Officer’, a song that calls out how the police are often seen as a symbol of fear these days rather than the safety they’re meant to represent. It’s powerful stuff highlighting a broken system, with Schlegel’s upbeat vocals refusing to mute the social commentary on display and the gang vocals at the end of the track evoke a feeling of unity. The closing track, ‘Shitty Town’ reprises it’s title track counterpart ‘Sunny Side’ a little, leaving things on a hopeful note, referencing pretty much every song that came before and is a little more melancholy, getting introspective as it highlights that fighting the good fight never be over (“This night goes on my friend, don’t wanna go home now because this is not the end”).
Skeetch have created an album that refuses to be ignored and is high energy throughout, featuring plenty of hooks and catchy lyrics (plus a truly face-melting guitar solo on ‘Head In The Clouds’) and might just be one of the year’s best!
‘Sunny Side Of Shitty Town‘ releases on 22nd August via Punkerton Records and is available to pre-order here https://punkertonrecords.com/en-gb/collections/vinyl-records/products/skeetch-sunny-side-of-shitty-town-vinyl
