The Putz- Hole In One reissue

With pop punk nearing the age of a sensible decision making adult in it's three decades of existence, creating it in a way that is interesting in present day is no easy task!!  It's easy to fall into sounding as a derivative or even worse, attempting to innovate it past the point of recognition but as luck has it, there's a small handful of songwriters who succeed at it still. I first heard of The Putz about four years ago from one of my friends on the East Coast. He had a lot of enthusiasm for what they were doing so I followed his tip and found that these guys from Indianapolis, IN were not only doing something good but rather great instead. Standing out from run of the mill and way off base, they play pop punk that makes you want to pull out your Queers, Screeching Weasel, and Beach Boys records for an all day binge, but also bring a unique personality to the table that is sincere, engaging, a little kooky, and utterly hilarious at times. To put it plainly, you remember who they are in one listen and that, my friends is what this small world of music we all love so much needs. I fell hard for the harmony heavy and super pop sensible "Knock It Off" in 2014, hoping for another reason to write about them immediately after and through the actions of some great people, something has manifested!!

Seeing a dire need for the songs to be placed on sacred format, Moms Basement Records decided to reissue the more than deserving first album of these guys on vinyl for the first time! From there the idea began to pick up more momentum with a beautiful remastering job done by Mass Giorgini at Sonic Iguana where "Hole In One" was originally recorded in 2009 by Phillip Hill. With everything sounding perfect, another modern day hero in the American label scene, Travis Woods added some live shots of the band into a bold yet simple and gorgeous layout he created, then it was off to the pressing plant!! Please take me seriously when I say don't wait to order this because the quantity is very limited! 100 copies were pressed to black, 100 copies were pressed to pink which I chose because it creates a lovely contrast against the cover art, and they include a download code of course! Release is today on the 27th(pretty inconspicuous date huh? Haha) and you can order it through the Moms Basement webstore! The tracks are waiting to be streamed or downloaded on the label's bandcamp page now too so go check them out! 

When I think about reissues the one thing I enjoy most is to see someone from the band talk about it instead of a writer's thoughts, so I decided to approach Billy and ask for a contribution to this piece. He answered my call with a wonderfully written recollection of the record and some cool history on the evolvement of the band as well so without further delay I'd like to hand over this space to him. 

"Looking back, it’s almost unbelievable that Hole In One ever got recorded, turned out the way did, or got released, let alone a remixed and remastered re-release…on vinyl!!! 

Now, I’d like to say that Hole In One was the result of endless hard work, timeless effort, and unmitigated dedication, but it wasn’t; it was really just an accident…

See, back in 2009, The Putz were at a very different phase in our…uh…career? Sure, if you call getting drunk and playing exclusively open mic nights, exclusively at the local dive bar, exclusively on Wednesdays a career that is. I’m pretty sure most of us do, so let’s not belabor. Now, we never harbored any delusions that we would ever become international superstars, but that didn’t stop us from being out of tune, out of key, and out of our minds. 

In all truthfulness, real talk here, we had no business recording an album at the time; furthermore, we had no business recording an album at the legendary (you’ve heard of it…) Sonic Iguana, but we did it anyway.

Our initial idea was just to capture our at-the-time-and-probably-only-to-us hilarious shtick, you know, for the annals of history. Our second idea was to just cancel and save our time and money. Our third idea, however, was to actually take ourselves seriously for a change. Mondo bizarro, I know. Well, that’s exactly what we did; we switched gears, scrapped the majority of the tracks we were intending to record, and started focusing on unfinished and unwritten material instead. 

In the end, we (surprisingly) pulled it together and found ourselves with a (surprisingly) decent album that included 16 tracks that were written, completed, and rewritten over the span of a decade, some of them during my formative years as a young school boy, and others literally in the week leading up to recording, and I’m willing to wager that most of you couldn’t even guess which were which. And, even though it may be juvenile, in terms of content and talent, Hole In One includes two very important songs for me personally: (1) the first good/decent song I ever wrote; and (2) the first song I ever wrote that I knew other people would enjoy. 

We halfheartedly approached a few individuals about the prospect of releasing an album recorded by a band no one had ever heard of, or knew existed, or cared about…yeah, well, whatever…In the summer of 2010, Hole In One was self-released on compact disc with a first pressing limited to 100 copies and a second pressing of 50 copies, and that was all. Ever. Until…

On tour in the summer of 2015, The Putz found ourselves lodging in none other than the mom’s basement (yeah, the one that inspired the record label, duh).  It was here, drinking PBR and watching South Park, that the benevolent John Proffitt, Jr. agreed to release the remixed and remastered version of Hole In One on Mom’s Basement Records…on vinyl!!!

In retrospect, Hole In One opened a lot of doorways for The Putz, not only because we had material we weren’t ashamed to send to bookers and promoters, but also because we knew what we were capable of achieving as a band. We started practicing, which led to playing more venues, which led to playing out-of-town shows, which led to playing out-of-state shows, all of which led to making fans that would become friends and friends that would become family."- Billy Putz

The Putz as they appeared on this recording...

Billy Putz- Bass and Vocals

Tyler Wrong- Guitar and Backing Vocals 

Jordan Miller- Drums and Backing Vocals

With appearances by...

Ian Johnson- Keyboards on "Once-a-Year Day" and "Idiot Over You"

Elise French- Vocals on "Bride Of Frankenstein"

Reissue produced by Billy Putz, Dougie Tangent, and John Proffitt Jr.

All songs written by Billy Putz(BMI) except where noted 

Tracks

Side A 

1. "Letdown Of A Lifetime"

2. "Not Giving In" 

3. "Your Spaceship's Taking Off"

4. "Operation: Sneak Out" 

5. "I Do(What I Want To)"

6. "Brain Dead" 

7. "Summer's Here"

8. "I Quit"

Side B 

9. "Institutionalized"

10. "You're Ugly"

11. "Once-a-Year Day"(Adler/Ross)

12. "Idiot Over You"

13. "Don't Talk"

14. "My Girlfriend's a Bonehead"

15. "Bride Of Frankenstein"

16. "Hole In One" 

The Ratcliffs- Bubblegum Warfare

"If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough."- Albert Einstein 

Who knew Einstien and Dee Dee had so much in common!? I did! I think this quote of a genius can easily be applied to the beautiful structure of a sound we define as punk rock and at it's very most foundation, that's what you find. Simplicity. This principle is very much alive in Europe and as a devoted fan of bands like the Mugwumps and DeeCRACKS, Austria is a place that I've been dialed into for years. This is largely in part due to those guys having such a crystal clear understanding of what a punk rock song should be, and they play it with no unnecessary embellishments. There was another band from Innsbruck that I heard a few summers back by means of a sampler that was made for the Monster Zero Mash in Bergamo from 2014. They were called The Ratcliffs and I remembered liking their song, but being the scatterbrained girl that I am, I got distracted by something shiny probably and forgot to research them further. It happens!! Anyway, let's fast forward into the present. I saw that they finally had a full length record coming not too long ago, checked out the stream when it went live, and in a few words I was smitten with it pretty quickly. I've been craving so much to hear a good pop punk record lately and it has arrived in the form of one called "Bubblegum Warefare"!

The songs were recorded/mixed during the Summer and Fall of 2014 by Matthias Mayr(aka Hias) at Workstation & The Shithole(aka Hias' bedroom) and then mastering was handled by Mathias Magerle. If theses names sound familiar, it's because they are!! Both of them were involved with the last Mugwumps record and like their work on "Can't Be The One", the sound quality they produced this time is great once again!!  The cover is a great fit with the album title featuring a photo of Paul shot by Jonas Flattinger and artwork by Karin Berner. Simple bubblegum concept, bright colors, I like it! Once that was all finished it was time for the painful process that always happens since everyone's waiting on the plants and there's not enough supply to meet the demand, but good things are worth the wait!! Official release happened on March 8th from the fine people of Monster Zero Records. 300 copies were pressed to pink or black vinyl and come with a download code. Collector nerds like myself, the pink wax is apparently super limited! Digital only can be found on the Ratcliffs bandcamp page where it's also streaming in full! Lastly, a small and limited edition run of 30 cassettes was made on Paul's label, Campfire Tapes. So your listening options are many!! But for now, go press play on that stream if you haven't done so yet.

I woke up early on the morning MZ announced the record was streaming and decided to investigate right away since I was so curious for it. Most of the time when I'm looking at a stream I don't start from the first track, but instead scan the song titles for one that jumps out at me. Usually that method proves to be quite effective and this time I decided to play "You Can't Break My Heart" first since that's an experience that typically spawns a great song. Especially in pop punk and my hunch was correct!! The Ratcliffs sound is simply a breath of fresh air and I was drawn right in by it. Paul is most certainly one of us in his devotion to the Ramones and Lookout bands, which you can hear in his songwriting but there's also some nice touches of 50's/60's rock 'n' roll in there too and it's very cool. Overall there's a huge injection of fun in their style, not taking anything too seriously and the lyrics are super catchy. Another thing I like about Paul is his vocal style. He's got much more of a melodic Joey-esque crooner approach and I'm into it! This recording also has a great lineup of talent! I mentioned Hias above who adds being a fine guitar player to his résumé and then Klemi who also plays drums for Insanity Alert shows his diversity, easily going from thrash to pop punk and did a wonderful job. The LPs 12 tracks cover a wide range of topics and open up in a very Riverdales Phase 3 sort of way with the first one, "S.L.I.T.H.E.R" that is a quick burst of  punk rock, talking of a two faced person. "Zombie Walk"  drops into a mid-tempoed pace and most definitely gives a nod towards I Walked With A Zombie. Monster songs never go out of style with me and the Ratcliffs do well in bringing an element of horror to their mixture without sounding cheesy. "Swine Flu Outbreak" and the metamorphosis illustrating "Teen Wolf Again" also go along with this theme and were infectious in their ability to get stuck in my head. I really love "Chinese Whispers" too! Its got some great backing vocals but as a true romantic, I gotta say I choose the ode of love lost called "Radioactive Queen" as my favorite track! The lyrics are enjoyably demented, expressing the woes of being burned in more way than one and the chorus is beautiful!! "Never Any Good" adds a little more variety, standing out a bit with just vocals and a more clean guitar but stays cohesive with the record and shows that early rock 'n' roll side I mentioned. 

2016 was SO SLOW to start out with new releases! I was waiting for something to come along that captured my attention and "Bubblegum Warfare" is it. This is a nice open to what is promising to be an eventful rest of the year so don't sleep on this first pressing and order a copy before it's gone. With both Hias and Klemi relocating soon, there are no immediate plans for The Ratcliffs besides the release show they played but seeing how that Austrian scene is such a supportive network of talented people, something is always bound to come together. Follow their facebook page to stay tuned! 

The Ratcliffs are...

Paul- Vocals and Bass Guitar 

Hias- Guitar

Klemi- Drums 

All songs written by Paul Coyote

Tracks

Side A

1. "S.L.I.T.H.E.R."

2. "Zombie Walk"

3. "Li'l Light Bulb"

4. "Swine Flu Outbreak"

5. "Too Many Issues"

6. "The Thing To Do"

Side B

7. "Chinese Whispers"

8. "Teen Wolf Again"

9. "Radioactive Queen"

10. "You Can't Break My Heart"

11. "Never Any Good"

12. "Camp Nowhere"