trailer park trash #13

lee cotterell

suspect device #40

april 2003

tony

a child’s fascination with ugliness

“the first word that comes to mind as soon as i fired this cd up was UNCOMPROMISING. if you were to take the buzzsaw guitars and primal aggression of prime time black flag and combine them with the wilfully unsettling edge of the pixies circa surfer rosa you’d be getting somewhere near the vext experience.

apparently vext don’t see themselves as being a punk band, but if punk means having the balls to get out there and do your own thing regardless, then they’re probably more punk than most of the bands masquerading under that particular banner put together.”

“a new band to me, but i wasn’t as excited by this as i usually would be. y’see, someone i know had said this lot weren’t that good, so i wasn’t expecting much from this. but i quite like it, it’s not like the usual thing i get sent. vext aren’t just trying to be like the latest thing from the US, they play hardcore, but hardcore that not only has hints of dead kennedys and mdc, but also wire and a particular 80s US band whose name escapes me at the moment (and it’s driving me mad). it’s the sort of thing that alternative tentacles would have been interested in back in the early 1980s, and in today’s climate it’s different, and that makes a refreshing change. i like it, and the more i play it the more i like it.”