BOTOX - You Need Botox LP (No Front Teeth Records) review

Just the fact that bands like BOTOX are still out there surviving, doing what they can to fight for an existence, delights me. There's a real connection that I feel with rock 'n' roll—punk rock in particular, punk rock like BOTOX makes, to put an even finer point on it. Aggressive, scrappy, and stripped-down, late '70s punk music is a mortal wound to a world that's becoming more and more accepting of artificial art. It's an airhorn right in the ear to those who are tying themselves up and lying down in front of the tracks that humanless creations are laying down. Tracks that will go on forever and take us on a journey to places that are perfect, peaceful, and complacent. Places that are sterile, uninspired, and utterly vapid. A place where we can shut off our feelings and emotions. A land where passion and fervor have no place and will be quickly extinguished if detected.

BOTOX is the real deal, folks, and they're right here, right now, right in front of you—playing a dimly lit, sweaty-as-hell club show somewhere in the world in a few days or a few weeks. No, there aren't millionaire "punk rockers" forming tribute bands in their honor, and there probably won't ever be. Will BOTOX ever have celebrities wearing their shirts as some sort of fashion statement or protest? Again, no, probably not, and that's OK. Because here we are, you and I, and we hear them; we can buy their records and go to their shows. Right here, right now, right in front of us. They aren't some sort of relic of the past to be admired and fawned all over. Punk rock is street-level, and that's where it thrives. In the gutters, in shadowy corners of the world, not in some sports arena with choreographed pyrotechnics blasting about.

London's BOTOX are taking the sounds of bands like Eater and The Damned and injecting Killed By Death venom into the music. The music on BOTOX's debut LP is mean, surly, and in-your-face. It's a pub brawl waiting to happen. They're a clenched fist, just waiting for the right words to unleash fury. At the same time, though, it also doesn't sound like some kind of low-effort hardcore shit, either. This isn't some band that's all fury and plays utter slop. This band's got the hooks, the swagger, and can drive a tune right down your earhole like a careening Mack truck. So if you're tired of bands that are taking punk rock into new and exciting sonic landscapes and just yearn for some punk rock that's genuine, authentic, then you need BOTOX.

Follow the band here:
instagram.com/wearebotox
facebook.com/p/BOTOX

Get the LP here:
wwwnofrontteeth.co.uk/