Mouthwash "True Stories" (Special Edition)

True Stories (Special Edition)
Mouthwash
(Rebel Alliance Recordings, 2009)

How typical: you wait seven years for a new Mouthwash album and then the band goes and releases it twice in eight months. Jokes aside, this re-release serves a purpose. When ‘True Stories’ was released back in September it was done so on the back of the band, a self-release that suggested Mouthwash was fed-up waiting for a label. With it came the ordinary limitations of putting your own record out. Now step-in the SB6 run Rebel Alliance Recordings and all of a sudden there’s a wider market ready to listen to these 12 tracks of grimey, deep grooved ska punk, and it’s a market perfect for this sound. Now here’s the bonus, the treat for anyone picking up this album now is a 10 track bonus CD featuring live and acoustic sessions, covers, re-workings and unreleased songs: a veritable leprechaun’s pot of gold.

If you didn’t catch ‘True Stories’ first time round (what were you thinking?) you missed a four-star record that mixed up summery chilled reggae-ska (‘A Face in the Crowd’, ‘Southbound’, ‘No Fear’) with heavy, bass hungry slabs of menace (‘Everyday Feelin’’, ‘The Sound’). It’s a record that goes a long way to filling the gap of the now departed King Prawn (hell, ‘Ask and It Is Giveth’ could stand back-to-back with ‘Dominant View’) as well as throwing in elements of The Clash and Rancid. It’s skacore, but with so many layers to it you’d find it difficult to lump this in with those third-wave bands. In a nutshell, there’s a dichotomy here that parallels that of Sonic Boom Six. Experimental, innovative and essential.

So, what of this bonus disk? It’s fair to say that these sorts of CD tend to be fore ‘fans’ only, ordinarily gathering together an odd-sand-sods assortment of crap. Well, if you checked out SB6’s ‘Play On’ you’ll know that Rebel Alliance doesn’t do crap bonus discs. The 10 tracks on this disc actually prove to be a vital edition to side one, if you will.

Firstly, only two tracks reappear (‘N68’, ‘Ask and It Is Giveth’ have both been plucked from an acoustic live session and if anything have a little gypsy feel to them). After that we get four previously unreleased tracks in various forms (demo/live session) of which ‘Solid As a Rock’ is a standout feeling as though it would sit perfectly on the feature disc. Then there’s two covers, ‘I Don’t Wanna Hear It’ [Minor Threat] and ‘One In Ten’ [UB40] that have the inimitable touches of Mouthwash embedded within. Lazy covers these are not. Finally, and most satisfyingly, the band dips back into its Hellcat roots and drags out ‘We Evolve’ and ‘Fools Gold’ from 2001 album ‘1,000 Dreams’, gives them a proper scrub-up, a polish, and completely contemporises them. This is Mouthwash in 2009 and it actually sounds better than the original. Ooh, controversial.

In a nutshell this is an opportunity for a do-over. If you missed ‘True Stories’ first time around grab a hold of it now. A September release meant it missed the summer last year, but this is a summer record if ever there was one. The bonus disc tacks on a extra half star for being a really decent little mix of oddities. Think about it, 22 tracks for the price of 12? You can’t do much better than that.

SkaMutiny rating: 4.5/5


Al

very good write up mr. al

Muchos gracias, Cap'n.

Sounds tip top, in fact, I have just purchased it

is your username the sound the 6million dollar man makes when running?

Erm, no, it's the noise Animal from the Muppets makes while singing... Although now I feel a stange urge to see said film in order to hear said noise.

You don't know the Six Million Dollar Man? Lee Majors?

Gotta get this album, the track I heard on the radio was well good.