In all probability, Eagulls don't like you very much. They definitely don't like surf bands. Or girls in bands either. Or maybe they do. The fine line between punk sentiment and punk sentiment-sentiment is becoming more and more blurred as evidenced by a hand written, expletive-laden tirade posted on (and subsequently taken down from) the website of Leeds based punk band, Eagulls earlier in the year. While that article gained a certain level of notoriety at the time, the band insists it wasn't the deliberately planned PR move it appeared to be.
Genuine or not, the letter worked. The band's punk credentials were ratified and a platform was laid down for the release of the band's eponymous debut record. A record which, as it turns out happens to be good. Really good. Right from the droned guitars and pounding kick drum of opener, 'Nerve Endings' Eagulls is assured, nihilistic and deeply enjoyable.
While there are unmistakable references to the current crop of punk-revivalists (think a gender switched Savages), there are also some classical punk throwbacks such as singer, George Mitchell's Joe Strummer like delivery of the wailed chorus on 'Possessed'. There's also a satisfying tendency to periodically explode from an 8mm basement-punk sound into a full-blown IMAX sized power chorus in seconds, (witness the instant widescreen exactly 2 minutes into 'Nerve Endings' and the building intro to final track, 'Soulless Youth'). Unshakeable and fierce without the tiresome abrasiveness which can sometimes prove exhausting, Eagulls may not like me but that feeling isn't mutual.
