First City

TRIBE 8: “First City” (Alternative Tentacles)

Graduates from America’s burgeoning Gaycore scene, Tribe 8 are a hardcore, punkish five-piece all-female band who deal in songs about seedy, sleazy, back-alley sex.

Imagine, if you will, the most obscene Gangsta Rap lyrics reducing women to the role of sex object, and reducing sex to a violent act of possessiveness. now imagine it sung by a woman, with screeching guitars and 120 beats a minute. With song titles like ‘Butch In The Streets’, ‘Neanderthal Dyke’ and ‘Barnyard Poontang’ you begin to get the picture. This is more akin to the writings of Sam Snort than to Graham Greene.

The best song by far on Fist City is ‘Seraphim’. The imagery manages to contain both religious and sexual overtones, and the lyrics vary from the highly poetic to the pornographic: “Kneel and take communion/Open your mouth and take the host/This is my blood/This is my body/Taste the wine/Open your throat.” Conversely, ‘Romeo And Juliet’ is merely hardcore porn, leaving nothing to the imagination. This is not in-your-face so much as in-your-crotch on the end of a size ten Doc Marten. Call me old-fashioned, but is there really anything wrong with a sense of romance and mystery?

Similarly ‘Neanderthal Dyke’ is a tad tactless, although this is so over-the-top it has to be meant as a joke, as Lynne observes “I’m not exactly woman-identified/I don’t give a shit, I just want to get laid/By curvy little hot and sexy eyeliner babes.” It is nice to see that there are still some people out there pursuing high ideals.

Too much of the album, however, lacks any form of subtlety whatsoever, pounding its message into your head as often and as blatantly as it can. Most of the songs are reduced to pornographic pen-pictures, lacking any real depth or meaning. Tribe 8 are not going to change the world, but they sound like they’re going to have fun trying.

• John Walshe