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This Kent based folk punk posse are one hell of a lot of ramshackle fun. Just listen to 'Southern Twist', complete with banjo, piano, guitar riffs and what sounds like pots and pans and you'll hear how passionate these guys are.
Sounding like a weird mash up of Gogol Bordello and The King Blues and mocking emo kids with this, their impressive debut album, should see these guys do well.
4/5 - Big Cheese Magazine
SOUNDS LIKE?
The latest in a distressingly short line of folk punk epics. Your sound-a-likey guff is The Levellers battering Billy Bragg while The Fuggs caper and giggle. This means punk n roll shanties, social awareness, sonic violence soothed with slick fiddles and all manner of goodness.
IS IT ANY GOOD?
Very. It’s even quite poppy, in as much as they’ve cleverly remembered to bung some melodies and hooks in.
WHY?
Because “Attack Of The Clones” is as honestly raw as it’s commercially aware and accomplished. Buy it.
- Unpeeled
Kent based Los Salvadores are another band I'd never even heard of and 'Attack Of The Clones', their new 11 track CD, has a mix of punk/Irish/folk music that is very catchy and certainly went down well with me.
The CD really has a real live feel to it and the unusual mix of punk guitar blended with folky banjo gives this band a sound all their own.
If you are a fan of Blood Or Whiskey you will certainly like this offering and I'm pretty sure Los Salvadores will be packing them in any time they play live in the Emerald Isle.
Being a fan of Irish music myself I think this CD is as good as anything by more established bands plying their trade in the same genre. I haven't stopped playing this CD since I got it and if it was on vinyl, the grooves would have worn away to nothing. - Punk 4 Life
LOS SALVADORES – Attack Of The Clones (Corndog) - Raw energetic folk-punk of a Levellers nature, little let down by the dull production, sound like they’d kick up a storm live though – especially the Drinking Song. Good positive outlook, lyrics and musicianship - there’s only one way of life and that’s your own. - Organ
Folkcore darlings Los Salvadores have taken a hard look at street drunk, minimum-wage, suburban nowheresville Britain and decided to defeat it with some luvverly positivity. Y'see, where the common punk fellow would merely become irate, Los Salvadores have a belief in the power of folks pulling together. Musically, they have reclaimed some great hairy musical stylings last seen having a roll-up in the garden shed back in the early 1970s; but they've kicked out the faery hippy shite, maybe dusted off great-grandad's banjo, and generally punked things up for us people. And sometimes they sound a bit like Chas'N'Dave as well - hooray!
The blueprint for their sound might make you think of The Levellers: these are bright, acoustic based songs with righteous folksy shout-along choruses, and they would be a dead cert to pull in the crowds (and liven them up a bit) on the festival circuit. Yet Los Salvadores have some serious heavy riffola lurking around the mandolins and banjos; there's ear-chewing metal from the bass drums and guitar, and with really tight playing all round, they pull off the quiet/ heavy, intimate/ huge dynamic with natural flair; they're all playing their arses off, but they're doing it to get behind the song, not Satan.
Highlights for me are: The Wish (everything they do best in one); The Drinking Song (a song for drunks who hate themselves); You Spoke, You Missed (starts with a note-perfect Stranglers tune nicked off the TV); Questions (some psychedelic folk in there).
The production is sharp and vocal balance is pretty spot on; it must have been a right funker to mix all these different elements, though they could make even more of the heaviosity at times. Los Salvadores are a great band who have something for everyone, so I suppose - Ye Gods - they're quite commercial, even. Several songs sound like epic set clinchers. It's a grower, this album, sounds a hundred times through speakers too, so take those poxy little ear-thingies out, and play it at your neighbours. Excellent sleeve art too, by some grand act of mystical funkery, the comic strip characters actually look like the band - from every angle. That's just unnecessary. - Punknews
Where do you start with this one?
The sleeve states “folk punk our only hope?”
An intriguing question and certainly one to ponder over the thirty six minute running time of the disc. Is it folk? Well, just a little but with a punky attitude and a heavy ska undertone, plus shouty singalong lyrics compete with choppy guitars.
It feels that the band have taken all of the music they love (even the dodgy stuff you keep secret from your mates) and thrown it at the wall. Whatever stuck was included. It is possible to pick out The Specials, Pogues, Dropkick Murphys, Squeeze, Chili Peppers, Les Negress Vertes, Mighty Mighty Bosstones and Metallica in the mix. That Los Salvadores choose to wear their influences so openly is commendable. That they can incorporate them so joyously into their own sound is miraculous. It would be so easy to allow this album to descend into farce but instead the band pull it all together into a wonder musical mix.
It takes me back to drunken nights in the Camden Town & Country Club at the fag end of the 80’s when it seemed The Pogues had moved in. Every other night offered up another bunch of goodtime ramshackle folkies skulling pints of the black stuff and leading the pissed up hordes in mass singalongs. The bonus track on the lead out of the disc could have been recorded in those heady days.
The best recommendation I can give to this disc is that I would now love to see Los Salvadores in the flesh. I am left with the impression that the live experience would be a riotous affair which would meld The Men They Couldn’t Hang, The Pogues and The Dropkick Murphys. And I bet they’d be tasty in a ruck too.
If you like music loud but with a melody this is one for you. Just buy it. It’s a perfect lads’ post-pub ‘back to mine’ soundtrack.
- Is this music?
Formed in 2004 Los Salvadores have worked their way to the release of their debut album in a relatively short time but from the sounds of things they haven’t been thrust into the studio too early, this is pretty cracking stuff. This emo baiting (‘Attack of the clones’ Get it?) debut is jam packed with big tunes that scream “Look at us!”, and if you catch them live you probably will.
Personally, I don’t really like punk, and closest I’ll get to folk is Bruce “The Boss” Springsteen but this self-proclaimed “folk-punk” group really do produce the goods where so many others have and will fail. The opening 5 bars or so of “Leviathan” defied most of my expectations for a punk record, I.E; no one called me a ‘cunt’, a ‘pig’ or a ‘fascist’ and the music was composed rather than attacked: this was nice.
The album’s 10 tracks (and a bonus live piece) benefit immeasurably from the layered feel given by their use of cello, keys, banjo, mandolin and something called a bouzouki in addition to a typical punk-rock backdrop of thrashed out chords and break neck tempos. Vocalist ‘G’ isn’t quite Pavarotti (which is probably for the best) but he displays a pretty good range and executes his shouting, screaming and singing with expert control and admirable conviction. The group’s skills are best illustrated on the double header of “Questions” and “Southern Twist”.
Corndog Records put this out and spared no expense. The art-work is great, depicting a zombie-emo invasion in a very handsome comic-book fashion. The booklet expands on the battle, showing each band member dispatching a number of ‘clones’ with their instrument of choice in gory fashion. Corndog appear to be newcomers to this record business, but their dedication to their music of choice (punk, if you hadn’t guessed) is obvious, and though independent they’ve made a real go of Los Salvadores’ debut. No matter your thoughts on punk, it’s always heartening to see this much hard work being put into independent rock music.
If anyone wants the critical aspect; Los Salvadores aren’t quite perfect yet, their melodies could be bigger and there could more variety in arsenal. These minor complaints prevent them being quite as rampant or infectious as similar sounding veteran peers Flogging Molly and Dropkick Murphy’s but by no means stop them being a heck of a good listen.
‘Attack of the Clones’ is a commendable debut (that has nothing to do with a boring Star Wars prequel) and I think Los Salvadores could easily become local heroes in the near future. Fans of punk-rock, a good time, or the live-scene (the energy presented on this disc cant fail to translate into a live great show) could do far worse than to listen in on this lot. They have an absolute ton of gigs scheduled so have a look for a show near you. - Blue Light District
More of a collision than a blend of folk and punk, Los Salvadores set banjos against frantic drums and power chords to create a sound that mixes Less Than Jake, Billy Bragg, Frank Turner and The King Blues.
Sly, rebellious and fun, Los Salvadores songs are filled with messages, catchy hooks and enough variations of sound and style to keep you constantly on your toes. A particular highlight is one of the slower tracks, “The Drinking Song”, with an infectious singalong chorus that is reprised in live, drunken glory at the end of the album.
“Attack Of The Clones” is an album with far wider appeal than the slightly niche genre of folk punk and will easily slip into the worlds of punk and ska, if not even further afield. Do yourself a favour and check it out. - Powerplay
Discography
Excerpt from a Ward - 2008; streaming on myspace and played on BBC 6 Music
Attack of the Clones - 2008; streaming on myspace and played on BBC Radio 1
Pink Champagne - 2006
Is This a Set Up? - 2005
Los Salvadores - 2005
Photos
Bio
Los Salvadores started in 2004 when Marf’s experimental metal band Inside the Mind of Henry Holmes and Mafro’s ska punk outfit Morgan’s Puff Adder split up. Both had gigged extensively, and wanted a rest... a nice, low pressure band they could play with when they felt like it. So they found two other similarly lazy musicians, bass player Pete and saxophonist Patrick Jones.
For the next six months, all four of them met up at the Sheppey Yacht Club and proceeded to do very little.
Finally, they decided they needed a drummer. And Pete said he didn’t want to play bass any more so they needed a bassist. And Marf decided he wanted to concentrate on guitar and didn’t want to do lead vocals so they had to find a singer as well. All four of them went to an air raid shelter near Maidstone where they’d heard a drummer called Huw lived, and made him be in the band. And one night soon afterwards, Mafro got drunk and asked his friends Luke, who played bass, and Huw’s brother G, who sings, to be in the band too.
That's how the band started.
Then we chose a name – Los Salvadores, or The Saviours – a sarcastic reference to the fact that we quite plainly weren’t; just seven blokes playing raucous folk punk music in an air raid shelter.
After a few more months practice, the raucousness was unleashed at the Beacon Court in Gillingham. Everyone went mental, so we kept doing it.
For the next year and a half we played lots of gigs all over the south east, and met lots of cool people. We also released two eps, which had some truly awful songs on them.Fortunately, there were also some that weren’t too bad, and we sold all of them quite fast, and started gigging even more.
But in 2006, Patrick decided that he didn’t want to do as many gigs, and would rather live in Switzerland. So he left the band, and took his saxophone with him. We miss him, but he still talks to us on our forum, telling us what he’s doing in Switzerland. From what we can gather, he is mainly skiing and drinking wine.
When Patrick left we recorded another ep called Pink Champagne. We sold all those too. Then in spring 2007 a friend of Mafro’s said he would sign us to his small indie label, and help us put out an album. So we did some more gigs, and started recording an album called Attack of the Clones. We released it in February 2008, and lots of nice reviewers said they liked it, despite it not being a folk punk record. Apparently it had too many organs, blast beats, off beats and shoop do waps. We agreed.
Now we say we are an experimental punk band. This means we can do what we like, whenever we feel like it, as long as we really mean it. Which we do.
The BBC heard Attack of the Clones, and Mike Davies played some songs on his Radio 1 rock show. And James Bursey and Tom Kirkby played some other songs on BBC Radio Kent, and got us lots of gigs. We like them very much, but not in a scary way.
In April 2008 we bought a mini bus which said Dover Grammar School for Girls down the side and went on tour, and visited lots of places we’ve never been to before. Like Huddersfield. It was lots of fun, and we didn’t kill each other. Huw bought some new shoes. The tour helped us get gigs all over the country, and in summer, we even got to play some festivals like Endorse It in Dorset and Zoo Thousand.
Then Luke, who played bass since 2005, left because he needed to spend more time with his family. We were sorry to see him go. He is a good friend of ours, and he looks like a peanut. But luckily, we found another bassist called Jim, who used to play bass for Battleska Galactica. He is awesome, and has a Rickenbacker. He was also ranked third in the country at mini golf.
Now we drive about in our van and play gigs all over the place.
Hopefully we’ll see you soon.
Love,
Los Salvadores.
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