The Baboon Show Don't Don't Don't (2005) National

The Baboon Show’s Don’t Don’t Don’t transports you to the sweaty, beer-stained punk clubs of the late 1970s. Everything about the band’s speedy, manic sound screams of ripped denim, leather, shaggy hair, and filthy rundown venues. Okay, so maybe the production is light years ahead of anything by early punk acts, but the band do tap into the same energy, abandon, and in your face attitude of their predecessors. Still, what is most surprising is the fact that nothing about the Baboon Show seems contrived. At a time when numerous bands sound like they merely want to cash in on the retro-revival craze or waste hundreds of dollars picking up the threads of former rockers from vintage boutiques, the Baboon Show merely want to rock.

On Don’t Don’t Don’t there are elements of classic rock and garage, but what really drives the band is singer Cecilia’s pissed off Patti Smith vocals. By mixing just enough vitriol with a knack for simple, but purposeful melodies, Cecilia aids the Baboon Show’s dirty rock sound. “This Is It!” sounds like a collaboration between the Distillers and an Oi! band, while “Pig of the Year 2006” is downright early AC/DC with its brash rock sound, and “Dirty Dollars and Armanis” recalls the Hives thanks to its choppy high-energy tone. Each song is a fast and spiteful bit of bombast packed with just enough of a melodic coating to not be overbearing.

If anything grows grating on Don’t Don’t Don’t it is the band’s slip into simplistic “fuck the man” lyrics. Maybe it is merely a language barrier (the Baboon Show are Swedish) or maybe it is an emulation of punk’s early days, but lines like “This is our neighborhood / This is not for the upper class / And not for brats like you,” or “I ain’t gonna be like you and your friends no / It’s a sin it’s a sin sin / I’m gonna eat you all like doughnuts / I’m gonna win,” merely sound like undeveloped high school declarations.

Moments of lyrical inadequacy aside, the Baboon Show have crafted a raucous and melodic record that rests somewhere between the Exploding Hearts and the Sex Pistols.

(Matt Whelihan)