Album Review: Ssssnakes - Kissss Thissss

Buy this record. A physical copy. Even if you don’t like the band buy a physical copy. Why?I hear you ask. The cover art is amazing. Not in a corny overly goofy way. Just in a genuinely warm, funny, massively endearing way. It looks like an Andrew WK record if he chose his art from awkwardfamilyphotos.com.

Strange musings about the cover aside this first full length from Ssssnakes (4 s’) is a surprisingly charming affair. With tongues planted firmly in their cheeks the South Wales quartet (3/4 of which play in Swansea’s premier skate punkers The Arteries) blaze through 12 songs that range from 10 seconds and rarely exceed the 3 minute mark. The best way to describe this record is like a compilation track of all the jokey songs that litter older The Bouncing Soul/NOFX records.

This may sound like I’m dismissing Kissss Thisss as a joke record wholly but Ssssnakes actually do a remarkable job of walking the line between scrappy and throwaway. They’re clearly a group of friends, who have an encyclopaedic love of punk rock, capturing the snotty, 3-chord but underlying droll attitude of bands like the Circle Jerks and Descendents. If songs like ‘Pina Colada’ were released in the late 80’s and were played in LA basements Ssssnakes would be selling out Shepherd’s Bush by now.

It’s easy to dismiss this record as a dumb side-project by three dudes in a great band (and seriously The Arteries are a great band if you didn’t already know) and their mate. However in it’s brattish lyrics and three note chug there’s a spirit and a charm that elevates Kissss Thissss into a record that maybe not stands on it’s own two feet but confidently slithers along on it’s belly.

3.5/5

'Kissss Thissss' by Ssssnakes is available now on Bandcamp and will be released on Vinyl through Specialist Subject Records on February 7th.

Barney Dufton