Single Review: Christmas / Skinny Millionaires – The Skinny Christmas Millionaires

Christmas first. The German punks’ contribution to this split single is their cover of GG Allin‘s Don’t Talk To Me. The original appeared on Allin‘s first album Always Was, Is and Always Shall Be from 1980 (as GG Allin and the Jabbers) and is a snotty lo-fi punk standard often covered, even by Queens Of The Stone Age. Allin means a lot to Christmas and this is their homage. What can you say about this? Christmas‘s version trundles along but they haven’t really captured the bite and scathing ennui of the original. When you have a (s)catalogue as challenging as Allin‘s (‘the most spectacular degenerate in rock & roll history”), this version of the song seems a rather pedestrian and – dare I say – safe choice. Good fun though, in a sub-Ramonesy Europunk kind of way, but Christmas have way better stuff than this.

Newport, Rhode Island’s Skinny Millionaires are definitely hard to characterise. They exude a kind of nerdy Dickies punk vibe that probably echo founder Mikey Millionaire‘s musical folk/punk beginnings. But being clever and idiosyncratic is not necessarily a recipe for instant appeal. Negotiations Didn’t Go So Well is a quirky track, full of a confident oddity that defies categorisation. It’s catchy, layered and complex, with fuzzed-out power pop juxtaposed with alternately howling and jangling guitars. Mikey himself is the ultimate punk polymath, a one-man music-making ideas machine who also is a key member of Turbo ACs.

Two bands with very different provenances and ideas. This is a good taster if you’re interested in sampling some diverse punk-influenced sounds. As the single is a very limited edition release, I’d recommend scooting over to either band’s Bandcamp and bagging a copy while you can.

The Skinny Christmas Millionaires split single will be released on May 3^rd.