Punk can be dumb. Punk can be smart. Punk can be any damn thing you want it to be which is, I guess, part of its ragged charm. Stuupid Karate are, I think, smart, in spite of their name (and the awesome promotional gimmick which saw the CD arrive alongside a genuine Karate Kid headband – YES!). They’re also pretty damn good at making the whole three-chord trick and shouting sound as invigorating as if you’re hearing it for the first time despite the fact that it’s about as original as a buddy cop movie featuring a mis-matched couple who eventually become friends to, you know, get the job done. Anyhow, I digress. Stupid Karate are smart and they’re fun and they write songs that frequently last less than a minute (oh and they throw in a bitching cover of the Undertones classic ‘Teenage Kicks’ just for good measure) meaning that their debut EP manages eight songs in just thirteen minutes, the whole thing hurtling past in the time it takes for most bands to get past the intro.
‘Serie Noire’, which opens the EP, is a case in point. It lasts just over a minute, twenty seconds of which is a sinister French monologue, before plunging straight into hyperspeed punk that owes a debt to the early days of the Epitaph label. Better still is the frenetic ‘drug free schools for me’ with its thuggish screams and razor-sharp guitars (not to mention the awesome drums) before the brilliantly titled ‘Smells like piss spirit’ puts the boot into the mid-90s alt scene, leaving it soaked in spit. Stallone gets a look in on ‘Lieutenant Marion Cobretti’ (Cobra) which sounds like it was recorded in a cement mixer whilst ‘I’ve got a curved edge’ is sung in English and has all the subtlety of the titular knife fight it covers. ‘Cool crimes’ is both one of the EP’s longest tracks and a highlight with its thunderous drums driving a much slower, darker sound that offers up the promise of some interesting musical developments in the band’s future. In contrast ‘Harambe’s revenge’ is as ferocious as they come with screeching feedback and split vocals hurtling past in a spray of spittle. The EP ends with a skewed cover of ‘Teenage kicks’ of which it is highly likely the late John Peel would have thoroughly approved. Capturing the melody of the original whilst filtering it through the band’s own, heavier, approach to song-writing it maintains a sense of spirit and does not hold too closely to the original.
Stupid Karate may deal in an oh-so-familiar brand of punk, but there’s something about this EP that is insanely listenable. Perhaps it’s the attitude with which the band attack the songs, the energy of their playing, or maybe it’s just the fact that half of the EP is sung in their native French. Whatever it is, there’s a sense that this isn’t just another punk band and songs like ‘cool crimes’ suggest that Stupid karate will only become more interesting with time. Fast, frenetic fun, if you dig your old-school punk with a youthful edge, then Stupid Karate are well worth checking out. 8
Get your fix of Stupid Karate here.
