[04.04] John Dwyer and his gutter-rock associates have made a loud, loud record.

It's so loud that, even with my stereo at half-volume, I worry that I'm hurting the speakers. The actual volume of it is high, sure, but really it's the punishing, facebleeding analog tape distortion that does it. Guitar and bass hit the tape so hard that the magnetic spool starts to disintegrate as soon as it hits the reel. Drums aren't drums in this melee—they're more like fists of hiss. I'm scared.

And yeah, it's punk as fuck.

Coachwhips put out another album last year on Narnack, called Get Yer Body Next Ta Mine, but this new one, Bangers vs. Fuckers, sounds much stronger. Weasel Walter, the svengali behind the Flying Luttenbachers, recorded this new one, and from the sound of it, he has no hesitation about going into the red and staying there until the transmission seizes and snaps. It's a quick twitch of a record, at 18 minutes, but when it's over, you're ready for it to be done.

It's great to see that the Coachwhips' records are finally doing justice to their live shows. The trio has a big reputation as a sweat-and-spasm dance band—a reputation based on the violent lineup featured on this recording, which consists of Dwyer, Mary Ann McNamara (keyboards, noise) and John Harlow (drums, noise). McNamara and Harlow are a couple, and Dwyer didn't like the Fleetwood Mackian drama that mixes dating with rocking, so he fired both of them after work was complete on Bangers vs. Fuckers.

From all accounts, the second edition of the Coachwhips lineup is great. At a recent show for San Francisco's Noise Pop festival, new drummer Mat Hartman played his kit˜from atop a pool table. The new keyboardist is named Val-tronic, and hey, that's a great name. We have every reason to believe that the Coachwhips will continue to be loud, and will persist in breaking stuff. —Kevin Seal