GG Elvis & The TCP Band - Back From The Dead

Welcome to Disgraceland…

The title gives it away: members of NOFX, Bad Samaritans and a host of US-type So-Cal pop-punk bands getting together to play high-powered, dead fast versions of Elvis Presley tracks.

Formed by Tony Cortez of Ill Repute in 2006, the Taking Care Of Punk band (geddit?) burn through the likes of Suspicious Minds, Devil In Disguise, etc with all the gleeful aplomb you’d expect. So far, so daft. A lot of these run-throughs are basically dunderheaded, but here and there you’ll find a Pistols riff shoehorned into a middle eight, or a track will suddenly lurch into a Ramones cover. It’s basically the case that these songs sound so good when performed by a punk group mostly because they are magnificently-crafted in the first place. The accompanying DVD features a heap of extras, including the spoof documentary Hanging With Dave Dilldini and a stack of live shots. It’s all gloriously pointless, from the scratch’n’sniff part of the sleeve art to the insistence that this somehow has anything in common with GG Allin’s output whatsoever. But the colours are bright and, in its own way, this LP flits magnificently between idolatry and iconoclasm, which makes for a lot of fun.

3 stars 3 stars 3 stars

Mental Records | MR 015

Reviewed by Joe Shooman
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