The Skuzzies - The Skuzzies

When you come to a band like The Skuzzies, your instant impression is to go down the good old 'does what it says on the tin' route. Skuzzies? File under grungy, distorted, low-fi indie rock... yup, right next to those ripped skinny jeans and vintage leather jacket you got off your dad.

The band's logo, scrawled into their self titled debut album's cover only serves to add to that image; it wouldn't look out of place hastily carved into a school desk - a defiant act of anarchy against the masses. Hey, there's even a track featuring the prince of riotious youth, Peter Doherty himself, on here.

Yes, there's the rebellion of that logo - but it's found next to a quirky manga rendering of the band, hinting at an ethic that, for all its grittyness, isn't afraid to shy away from pop culture either. Strokes producer Gordon Raphael, speaking of the band, hailed them as ‘one of the best new groups in London'. A bold claim, and one that stresses even more the importance that this debut is up to scratch.

The Skuzzies' music is dirty, rough, and oh so full of the essence of London. It's as if someone's dug deep into the heart of the city's backstreets and dingy bars and found the band's sound, ready-made to rock.

The tracks are remarkably varied to be honest, the continual foundation running throughout being the meaty basslines and stabs of spiky guitar. Hungry as a Hound is a suitably snappy intro to the record; coming in at just over two and a half minutes long it wastes no times in showing you exactly what The Skuzzies are about.

Then there's Brompton Cocktail, which while sounding like something you'd mix up on a Saturday night, is also pure Clash - a London Calling for the 21st century. It's lad rock at its most angsty - overflowing with testosterone.

On The Corner, the LP's final track, AKA 'the one with Peter Doherty on it', works so well because it genuinely sounds like a long lost Libertines classic; serving to remind us that while so may bands have tried to recreate that sound, so few get it right. Thankfully, The Skuzzies are one of the select few who nail the sound and the result is one of the best tracks on the album.

The Skuzzies is released on the 1st August.