Gone Bats

Personnel: Richard Walters (drums).
Recording information: Audio Confusion; Worker Bee Studios.
Photographers: Ed Hartmark; Andy Hartmark; Diana Price.
Although they're from Phoenix, Stitch Hopeless & the Sea Legs sound rather like the Pogues gone Oi! on Gone Bats. The final track, in fact, is subtitled as a "Tribute to Shane MacGowan." But there are more hints than that, most particularly the pirate leer of lead singer Stitch Hopeless, delivered with a hoarse gurgle that surely couldn't withstand more than a few years or so of steady use without causing permanent vocal damage. Much of the lyric content is on the abrasive and even shocking (see "Corpse Fucker," "Johnny Dingle [They Eat Flesh]," and "Blood Bath") side, though it would have been much more shocking prior to the territory being strip-mined by many other bands that have plowed the same field before them. It's hard to tell whether the effect is intentionally or unintentionally comic, but it's the sort of over the top hardcore that's difficult to take too seriously, or to laugh too hard at if you're looking for comedy. One feature that does set them aside from the usual such outfit is the use of upright bass by GoreDon, who -- like his compatriots Hopeless, Johnny Hell, and Shane Leg -- has adopted a pseudonym just as subtle as the music. ~ Richie Unterberger