REVIEW: Forty Winks - Bow Wow

With a cover that calls to mind the raging debate Spinal Tap had with its publicist (the one that led to Nigel's all-time great observation "Wot's wrong with bein' sexy"), this thing comes roaring, really snarling out of the gate with the punky, bouncy opening track "Beneath Her Feet". It's a twelve-song tour of pop/punk styles that features keyboards and horns in spots but really, throughout it's guitar-based New Wave-inspired good time rock music.

Here's "Beneath Your Feet":



In places it reminds me of Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, which I suppose is a way to say it sounds a bit like the Smithereens with a bit more of an edge. Honestly, they sound like they could go either way: they're a real good punk band - the evidence isn't hard to find on YouTube - but they could definitely garner a large mainstream audience if they wanted to play it that way. Me, I like the punk...

Here they are playing "Way Out" at a club in Bologna:



Going back a little ways, here's a video that somebody posted on YouTube five years ago, and it's real punk:



Kind of like "garage rock from Japan", there's something about "punk rock from Italy" that makes you look twice, and this record grabbed my attention with really well-executed and hard-rocking songs from front to back.

... if it just wasn't for that cover art... What's Italian for "Wot's wrong with bein' sexy?"

Forty Winks Website

Forty Winks on Pure Volume