Album Review: Brandy And The Butcher – Dick Circus

South Carolina’s Brandy And The Butcher was forged in 2018 when longtime friends Jay Matheson and Kevin Brewer resumed jamming together after Brewer retired from the army, they called upon Brewer’s fellow army musician Roger Shattuck to join them and recruited Elizabeth Hale, the only person they knew who had the necessary sass to front the band, and started penning original tunes that drew from their collective love of vintage punk rock and they began touring across the Carolinas. This all means that there’s more than a hint that Brandy And The Butcher are something of a throwback to punk’s roots, on their early releases they reworked Dead Kennedy‘s ‘California Über Alles‘ for their home state of South Carolina and covered The Damned‘s 1977 single ‘Neat Neat Neat‘, both of which blended in happily alongside their own material on the fistful of singles and EP’s that preceded the arrival of “Dick Circus“.

You are welcomed into the “Dick Circus” by ‘Ballerina‘, in contrast to the title this has a stamping beat and sets the tone for this throwback to the early days of punk and what came before, ‘Pool Party‘ and the album’s title track keep the beat going before you hit ‘Makin’ The Scene‘, a track that brings the pace down and channels The Runaways and early L7. From here on in it’s back to familiar territory, ‘Misunderstood‘ and ‘Monkey The Cat‘ are both abrasive rockers, with the latter bringing Elizabeth Hale‘s sass and attitude to the forefront. The waves of raw overdriven punk rock keep building with the abrasive trilogy of ‘Watch Me Go‘, ‘Broken Bones‘ and ‘Technicolor Mandy‘ before you get the album’s finalé, ‘Earthquake‘, a track that supercharges the spirit of the 60’s garage bands and rounds out an album that is simultaneously surprising and very familiar.

“Dick Circus” is an album that invokes the old school of punk but doesn’t recycle it, there are moments that draw comparison to the aforementioned bands and the likes of X, The Misfits, The Stooges, Joan Jett, Dead Boys and the Ramones, to name but a few, but Brandy And The Butcher are doing things on their terms rather than being just another revival act. “Dick Circus” is an album that has taken the raw roots of punk rock and dragged them untouched into the modern age, there are also touches of old school rock thrown into the mix along with a slight influence from the snotty garage bands that arguably paved the way the way for the original punk scene. You could argue that Brandy And The Butcher are an anachronism, but from my perspective this is a band born out of time, if you imagine one of those bad sci-fi tv series where people go missing and return after 40 years without any explanation, well if those people were punks from the late 1970’s “Dick Circus” is essentially the album they would make upon their return.

“Dick Circus” will be released on the 21st August and can be pre-ordered via Bandcamp here