THE PRESS RELEASE: “One of the standout moments at pretty much any Flytraps gig is when tall bassist/front woman/vixen Kristin Cooper, often clad in a pair of her signature stylishly kinky, high heeled leather boots that enable her to tower over the audience bellows out that her gender is “more deadly than the male” in their song Female of the Species. It always resounds as a declaration to be truly reckoned with. The band’s first full length album, titled appropriately enough Wild Card, is a straight ahead unrelenting punk rock affair genre-wise with a few nods to garage and rockabilly while the songs themselves espouse a particularly deviate ethos and a couple of references to podophilia (or foot worship, for the uninitiated) in the title track and Baby’s A Freak. Produced at Jazzcat Studios in Long Beach by Johnny Bell, the 12 tracks contained on this recording bristle with a raw energy that brings to mind the earliest releases of The Weirdos, Motörhead and yes, The Ramones. Alternating between frenetic numbers that burst out at a breakneck pace and bouncy up tempo riff driven tunes, this album delivers a glorious sonic attack enhanced by the band’s secret weapon Beth who displays some serious rock ‘n roll chops on her guitar solos and is anchored by the ferocious thunder of Fabian Ruiz’s drums. In the grand tradition of The Cramps, The Flytraps create and play debauched party music for freaks that even vanilla punk rock fans can enjoy! “
MY TWO CENTS: Turns out youth is not always wasted on the young. At least, not on the young punks. These women (and their token dude drummer) definitely don’t look old enough to have been around for L.A. punk’s initial explosion — or to have seen bands like The Cramps, Weirdos, Dickies and X back in their Decline of Western Civilization-era heyday. More power to them, then, for having the good taste and sense to channel and combine their forebears’ finest and fiercest sonic qualities into their own explosive little firecrackers of gritty old-school punk — while paying homage to the speed-demon antics of fellow icons like Motörhead and The Ramones at the same time. Deal me in.
https://youtu.be/oKiijrcICZQ
