Pocket Caligula goes old-school punk on Unsound

Way, way back in the day, when Henry Rollins was a skinny kid hawking Häagen-Dazs and Wattie Buchan had yet to grow his first sherbet-coloured marlin, a legendary punk band known as the Queen Haters briefly ruled England. Google them on YouTube, and marvel at the way they give Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor a musical shit-kicking that would impress Johnny Rotten.

Pocket Caligula would have made excellent touring partners for the Queen Haters, the five-piece specializing in a brand of punk that predates not only MP3s and YouTube, but also MTV, the Sony Walkman, and the toilet training of Billie Joe Armstrong. Got a cool uncle or aunt who’s never given up the safety pins? Cue up the three-chord battle cry “There’s a War On”, which consists of the brilliant (in an idiot-savant kind of way) chorus “There’s a war on/You moron”.

Unsound starts with the intentionally affected art-waver “Running in Crop Circles”, during which singer Ted Dave embarks on a successful mission to prove he’s not entirely right in the head. After spraying no shortage of old-school snot for 10 tracks, it does the junkie strut across the finish line with the mass sing-along “Mount Peasant, Yeast Side”, which, amazingly, is almost as clever as its name. Take that, Queen Haters.

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