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Reviews:
“Your only chance to see a live Glam
band … in South Carolina … was to start your own”.
So the press release goes, and The
Wet Teens have done precisely this – twice. In the late 1970s, Michael
Mercury‘s band The Wet Teens were sadly short-lived, managing only to run
off a small quantity of high-energy demos before tragedy struck, Mercury
dying of syphilis.
Fast forward twenty-five years, and
Michael Mercury’s nephew stumbles across the demo, re-records it (acquiring
his uncle’s persona in the process), and The Wet Teens were born afresh.
Remarkable info dump over, the Let It Pee of today is loud, crude and fun.
From the literal opener “An Introduction
By Ron Jeremy“ to the punning album title to the simulated orgasm contained
in “Stuck In You”, Let It Pee isn’t clever. Yet, the band know the strengths
of the material and instead litter the short collection (just six tracks)
with heavyweight guitar work that, even without the back-story, you just
know is true to a time when axe-slaying ruled the airwaves.
Those that chime out in closer “Triple
X Sex” bring the power of AC/DC to mind, the measured chug of the eyebrow-raising
“Sweet Little Fag” is purely background to the stadium riffs that rip through
its midsection. “Stuck In You” comes on entirely like a strutting Rolling
Stones ballad only by way of Guns N’ Roses‘ version of “Knockin’ On Heaven’s
Door” thanks to its waterfalls of indulgent piano.
Cleanly produced, Let It Pee is frequently
taken to the gutter by Mercury and his ghost with varied and unfaltering
tales of promiscuity, and, in particular, of fellatio. See any track for
proof, but these direct pearls probably take the biscuit: “Her heart is
open, and so are her legs / She gives it to me, I don’t have to beg / The
time has come girl for us to fuck”. It’s safe to say that this sort of
thing would even make most modern commercial hip-hop lotharios blush.
Not for the fainthearted then, The
Wet Teens nevertheless do history proud. It’ll be interesting to see if
the current incarnation can strike it out on their own, but, for now, South
Carolina can again ring to the sound of a Glam-rock thought forgotten,
to a very welcome blast from the past.
~ Rob Gannon, [sic]magazine
The Myrtle Beach, South Carolina-based
punk outfit, the Wet Teens has a rather unusual history that dates back
almost forty years and at least two different incarnations. Starting off
in the late 1970s, when glam punk and glam rock were the biggest thing
out there – think of the New York Dolls and Generation X, for example –
it wasn’t very often that you’d come across many glam punk bands down South.
So like tons of little towns across the country, the Wet Teens formed,
fronted by Michael Mercury and they played tons of shitty little dives
across South Carolina before recording a demo that had dubbed, and passed
on to their friends. Sadly, the band came to a rather sudden end when Michael
Mercury died of syphilis. As the unfortunate legend has it, Mercury was
a sex addict and a Christian Scientist.
Fast forward some twenty-five years
when a house fire destroyed the Mercury family home. The late Michael’s
nephew came across a copy of his uncle’s demo and decided to re-form the
band, taking on his uncle’s persona. The re-formed Wet Teens eventually
re-recorded the demo which is now their EP, Let It Pee. Clocking in at
about twenty minutes, Let It Pee is a tribute to sin, debauchery and glorious,
ridiculous excess – drink too much, party too much, do too much drugs,
fuck too much, repeat and then repeat again. Maybe you get into a fight
or you pass out in your own vomit. It’s the rock ‘n roll lifestyle where
you live fast and die even faster …
Musically, the Wet Teens will remind
listeners of Bon Scott-era AC/DC, Motley Crue and other bands of that ilk
– that is obnoxiously aggressive, loud, and fast music. We’re talking about
screaming guitars, pounding drums and screaming vocals. But where AC/DC
and even Motley Crue had a sense of menace and danger, the Wet Teens are
outrageously juvenile and sex obsessed. “Sweet Little Fag,” is an inappropriately
funny song describing how after a gig, a gay man makes a sexual advance
towards Mercury – and how Mercury goes along with it. “Love Cream,” is
full of filthy, sexual come ons and innuendo. “I’ll lick you to your core,”
Mercury grunts, screams and howls, throughout the chorus.
Let It Pee is a fun, outrageous ode
to the rock ‘n roll excess of old but at the same time, it’s not terribly
original and feels a bit dated for those listeners like me who had grown
up headbanging to Motley Crue’s Dr. Feelgood, Guns ‘n Roses’ Appetite for
Destruction or AC/DC’s Highway to Hell. But for a new generation of listeners
who have quickly tired of the pabulum and bullshit that the major labels
call music, Let it Pee will probably feel like a revelation. Let’s hope
that this album will draw people to the great music of the era that influenced
the original demo.
~ William Ruben Helms, The Joy of
Violent Movement
Ahh… to be a carefree teenager again:
invincible, immortal, no responsibilities save getting good grades scoring
a bitchin’ ride.
On a slight detour from the average
Silber Records CD, which is usually more experimental-driven, drone-noise-ambient-everything-but-the-kitchen-sink
types of tinkering and toying with.
The Wet Teens’ new CD, Let it Pee
is a raunchy, hilarious romp, evoking memories of late-night parties, raunchy,
meaningless sex, sex, sex and the devil-may-care attitude that accompanies
such a thrill-ride. The Wet Teens are not, as was de rigueur back in the
2002-2007 days, full of faux-angst and almost over-their-heads in polemic
logic that quickly degenerated into brooding and heavy drug use (Linkin
Park, Limp Bizkit, Blink 182 – a small exception there, since their lyrics
were mostly just sophomoric dick jokes and stupid sexual innuendo which
wasn’t even funny, just bathetic).
As a band, these young hedonists may
at first come off as a bunch of crude frat-boy-pranks, but there is actual
talent there. I can’t say that they aren’t also guilty of over-the-top
sexual crassness – but that is their raison d’etre: they play their instruments
well too, not virtuosic, but well enough to give them some “crit-cred”
(as opposed to “street cred”, dig?) – to coin a phrase…in other words,
they have the talent and the panache to back up their orgiastic party romps,
their cleverly written tunes in which they let it all hang out, which makes
it more fun to listen to – humorous songs that take you back to those awkward
teenage days when anything went and you were immortal and knew everything
and their was no consequences for any of your actions – not in the near
term, anyway and that’s all that mattered at the time – wasn’t it? So,
let’s mark them in the “Creative” box and go on from there. So, bottom
line – when you put on Let it Pee, leave your silly, old-fashioned hang-ups
in the closet, like so many unused coats and hats.
So, while The Wet Teens may be new
and therefore I can’t go on and compare this one to their old stuff, or
whatnot, I can just say that it doesn’t really do them justice to try to
write what they’re all about, I can only describe it from my point of view
and say that it’s worth a listen and then you’ll understand what I’m talking
about.
The CD opens with an apropos introduction
by Ron Jeremy (track 1) and then goes right into a song titled “Wet Teens”
– I guess you could call it their mission statement. Two other tracks that
may arouse your enthusiasm are “Stuck In You” and “Triple X Sex”. It’s
basically something you can use in place of the soundtrack for whatever
porn flick is in your DVD player, turn down the volume on the tube and
crank up the ‘Teens.
~ Kent Manthie, Reviewer Magazine
Born out of a house fire, when the
nephew of the late Michael Mercury discovered his uncle's old demo (from
the 1970s), The (revamped) Wet Teens play glam rock and early 1980s style
music - full of lyrics about excess, exploits, and debauchery, all out
of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
If you love 1980s cover bands, this
might be your ideal new glam rock band. With an album title like "Let it
Pee" how could you not be intrigued? Their lyrics are explicit, their guitar
lines intense, their drum beats driving, and we're sure their live show
would be invigorating.
Together since 2004, but influenced
by music from 30 plus years ago, we're not really sure what their end goal
may be, but they've creatively revived an era.
~ New Band Daily
Il y a des disques dont l'histoire
est plus intéressante que la musique. Si l'on en croit le dossier
de presse (qui vaut le coup d'oeil), l'origine de celui-ci vient directement
de la grande période du glam où un petit groupe local voit
son leader mourir après l'enregistrement de leur première
démo en raison de ses excès de débauche. Trente-cinq
ans plus tard, le neveu du chanteur découvre les bandes, adopte
la personnalité de son oncle et remonte le groupe pour nous offrir
ces chansons dans ce Let It Pee. Joli conte de fée mais n'écoutant
que son côté investigateur, le rédacteur de DLMDS va
chercher plus loin (et je vous promets que chercher The Wet Teens dans
un moteur de recherche, ce n'est pas Safe For Work comme on dit là-bas...),
découvre que cet album est déjà sorti sur un petit
label il y a deux ans et que le groupe serait en fait composé de
différents membres de la scène locale (en l'occurence Myrtle
Beach, South Carolina). Moins glamour, mais après tout cela ne remet
pas en cause la version officielle, alors on va rester sur la réincarnation...
La musique ? Ca va venir, mais on
va d'abord parler du concept de l'album (et contrairement à ce que
le titre laisse penser, ce n'est pas une parodie d'un groupe célèbre)
qui est : parler de sexe. Si le premier titre 'An Introduction by Ron Jeremy'
(double sens sans aucun doute volontaire) ne suffit pas à vous faire
comprendre (pas non plus Safe For Work à googliser pour ceux qui
ne connaitraient pas Ron Jeremy) qu'on va faire ici dans le cul bien cru,
les titres les moins explicites, 'Stuck in You' et 'Love Cream' devraient
sans problème vous en convaincre. Les textes sont pour le moins
graveleux, Micheal Mercury nous racontant sans fard ses (enfin celles de
son oncle donc) expériences de débauché chronique
et ses petits plaisirs personnels, s'adonnant même à la simulation
d'orgasme (bouh, on n'y croit pas, simulateur !) sur la ballade 'Stuck
in You'. C'est pas fin (disons même carrément lourdaud), ça
ne s'écoute pas trop souvent mais c'est carrément beaucoup
plus rigolo que certains groupes anglais musicalement pas très éloignés
mais restant par trop sérieux (The Darkness, The Glitterati...).
Parce que franchement, qui aurait
envie en 2010 d'écouter un groupe sérieux influencé
à parts égales par Judas Priest, AC/DC, Guns N'Roses, New
York Dolls et Blue Öyster Cult ? Un truc allant chercher par moment
dans le plus kitsch des trucs à grosses guitares allant du glam
au heavy metal ? Sans doute pas grand monde, et tout l'exploit de Wet Teens
est d'avoir réussi à produire un pastiche à la fois
très drôle et respectueux, qui donne dans le délire
mais sonne authentique, ce qui lui permet de ne jamais donner l'impression
de parodier le genre, comme Spinal Tap ou Tenacious D. Un truc de fans,
excellents musiciens au demeurant, se permettant un bon petit retour dans
le passé tout en s'offrant (on l'espère en tout cas) une
bonne tranche de rigolade.
Bon, comme toutes les bonnes plaisanteries,
et c'en est une autre de voir Let It Pee sortir chez Silber Records label
réputé pour ses disques dans des genres moins... fun comme
ambient, post-rock ou slowcore, cet album est court et tout sauf inoubliable.
Il a de bonnes chances de ne pas vous faire rire. Mais s'il y a en vous
une part d'ado attardé fan de riffs gras et de vannes salaces (à
moins que ce ne soit le contraire), ça vaut franchement le coup
de l'essayer.
~ Dans le mur du son |
