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Album review: Dwarves – ‘Jenkem’

By Alex Goose

The Californian punk veterans are (somehow) still going strong!

Yes, for the gazillionth time, the Dwarves are somehow still going! We’re baffled as to how, given all the scrapes that Blag Dahlia’s mob have gotten themselves into over the years, but we’re grateful that they’re still around. We’re not even sure what album number ‘Jenkem’ is for them, but let’s just say that most bands of their age (they formed in the 80s, after all) would be forgiven for sounding a bit tired by now. The Dwarves, however, are not most bands.

Packing 14 songs into just under 20 minutes, they do not mess around. The band basically have two settings; one where they blast through a song with hardcore (even crossover thrash) intensity, and a (slightly) slower, more melodic side; the latter will be familiar to anyone else who originally discovered the band via their song ‘Everybody’s Girl’ (on an Epitaph Records ‘Punk-O-Rama’ compilation, if we’re not mistaken).

‘I Must Confess’ is perhaps the best example of the former, with Blag working his voice into a screech as the guitars and drums hurtle by with all the subtlety of a runaway freight train. Ooh, and that solo! ‘I Wish You Were Dead’ is also as abrasive as you’d expect from its title, and damn near had me starting a one-man circle pit in my own kitchen.

On the other end of the scale, the comparative prog epic (at a whopping two minutes long!) ‘Damned If I Do’ is the kind of tuneful, mid-paced ode that you’d associate with mid-to-late period Bad Religion, whilst the halfway brace of ‘I’m Dead’ and ‘Bad Drugs’ is as catchy as it is brief (i.e. very). There’s even a touch of garage rock swagger on ‘Psychosis Tripping’ and ‘Here We Come’, and like everything else on here, it’s infused with a sense of restlessness and urgency.

You get the feeling that if the big red nuclear button was pressed tomorrow, the Dwarves would somehow not just survive, but keep rocking out as hard and recklessly as ever – all the better to frighten the cockroaches, don’t you know. Seriously, though; ‘Jenkem’ is a sound of a band whose inner fire still burns brightly, and as veteran ambassadors of true punk rock go, they’re (a) somehow still here, and (b) doing a better job than most.

‘Jenkem’ is released on 5th June – pre-order it HERE.

  1. Confused
  2. We Are The Scene
  3. Drug Lust
  4. Damned If I Do
  5. I Must Confess
  6. Too Messed Up
  7. I’m Dead
  8. Bad Drugs
  9. I Wish You Were Dead
  10. Psychosis Tripping
  11. Melania
  12. Here We Come
  13. Be Ruthless Destroy
  14. Last Chance Lily
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