Whiskey Shits – Montreal, Québec, Canada
Whiskey Shits – Borderline Insanity, four words that sound they would be rather painful if they were a true to the letter anatomical occurrence. Are they based on truth? Personal experience? Who knows, but they do denote to a four-track Street Punk release.
Whiskey Shits from Montreal have the archetypal story of the underground Punk band. Line-up changes, hiatus, moving cities, personal hurdles, excessive touring the band have done the lot. The latter, however, quite importantly being a result of the band finding their feet, ‘getting their shit together’ and moving forward.
After years of the above and the hiatus after their 2013 release, Whiskey Shits released a full-length in 2019 entitled Blind Leading The Blind quickly followed by Borderline Insanity, which is why we are here. The band open with their eponymous charge. Gritty ’80s-esque Street Punk ‘core is led in via melodic lines in the forboding manner of the very decade before edging towards the melodic sound seen in latter-day records by The Unseen.
‘Lost Members Of The Tribe’ rides in rumbling and anthemic. The track is an ode the lost and to those who the contemporary societal systems and trajectory got too much for. Truthfully, it’s a topical matter seen on a plethora of Punk releases but that in no way makes it any less important. Stylistically speaking, the track ticks all the Street Punk boxes. The influence of melodic Punk is felt albeit slightly and the foundational high-octane elements of the genre are what they are.
What more do you want? To continue the Punk-Rock addiction; obviously. ‘Addicted’ is one for the bpm junkies of the Punk-scene. Again, noticeably, Whiskey Shits are far more melodic that you’d speculate them to be. Yet, the band check and balance such with visceral and furious vintage Hardcore Punk.
‘Addicted’ is also standout for another reason, however. Whiskey Shits are far from slow! Drummer Moik isn’t exactly one for building towards a cathartic explosion rather lives in one perpetually. ‘Addicted’, given its subject matter, wouldn’t work any other way.
Whiskey Shits are here for but four tracks only. ‘Welcome To The Future’ is yet another of those classic topical anthems. In the post-Orwellian age, how private are our lives? How much of this is through our own enabling? Our own volition has done us wrong yet again.
‘Welcome To The Future’ closes a Punk release that simply is. A release that simply is natural to itself through high-octane classic Street Punk-Rock that does the job. I’m not entirely sure what else to say.
