Thee Amazing Snakeheads - Amphetamine Ballads

Jim Reid of the Jesus and Mary Chain once bemoaned the fact that he tended to sing in an Amercanised drawl rather than his native East Kilbride burr.

Glasgow’s Thee Amazing Snakeheads certainly won’t have any regrets in that department. From the instant frontman Dale Barclay opens his gob on ‘I’m A Vampire’, there’s no doubt where these boys hail from. “She is more beautiful than anyone I’ve ever met,” Barclay drawls in his thickest Glasgwegian tones. “And she fucking knows it...”

‘Nightime’ follows like a groovier version of The Cramps. Amphetamine Ballads is an aptly-named collection of rough-around-the-edges swamp rockers that has already won Thee Amazing Snakeheads notoriety and acclaim (notably at the recent Other Voices festival in Derry). There’s even a kick-ass tune entitled ‘Swamp Song’. The album as a whole lives up to its title.