Sludgeworth – Losers Of The Year (Expanded Reissue)

I’ve been a fan of Dan Vapid’s work since I caught him with The Riverdales supporting Green Day back in the days when they still played theatres, rather than the soulless arenas they now frequent. From there I discovered Screeching Weasel, The Methadones, The Queers and latterly Dan Vapid & The Cheats, definitive proof that you should always try and catch the support bands. But amongst the extensive list that inevitably accompanies the PR for any of his releases, there was one name that has remained illusive in that list, Sludgeworth, who the fuck were Sludgeworth? By the time I’d heard the name this album was long out print, but now Red Scare Industries have come to rescue once more as they are finally reissuing the posthumous Losers Of The Year compilation on digital, CD and vinyl.

Losers Of The Year was originally released on Lookout Records in the mid 90’s, despite the band having long since dissolved and splintered off into other outfits it flew off the shelves, remember it was the 90’s. Whilst that indefinable signature that is in all of Vapid’s various outfits is present, it’s in an embryonic form. Make no mistake this is mostly pop punk, before pop punk was really a thing, but alongside the hooks there are also raw intense Fuzagi-esque moments with gravel tones. There’s also a live urgency to the album with a no frills production that just suits the material perfectly, it also proves that the fickle nature of the music industry. This collection is superior to anything the fledgling godfathers of stadium pop punk were putting out at the time, history could have easily been so different.

If you have any love for the long list of band’s Dan Vapid has inhabited over the years then add this your collection, and I’m especially looking at you Screeching Weasel fans. This is a collection of infectious fast melodic punk rock songs, almost every one is an uncut gem, although the two previously unreleased tracks, that are available exclusively on the CD and digital editions, hint at a different direction, one that apparently led to Vapid following his own prolific path and the rest becoming Ethyline. In a world where vinyl is a scarce resource the massed reissuing of “classic albums” and endless anniversary pressings seem like an unnecessary clog in the pipeline for band’s trying to put new music out on the resurgent format, but there are exceptions. And believe me, Losers Of The Year is one of those exceptions.