Owned since: 2018
Genre: Pizza greaser punk
Where I bought it: German punk outstanding distro/label Adagio830
Year: 2010
Label/pressing: Bachelor Records/Red Lounge Records
With Burger Records going to (much deserved) shit last summer, through it being an extremely bad place, it is nice at least some of its output got re-releases here on other labels. I also barely own any of the Burger records; they were either always too expensive imports or just weren’t bands I really wasn’t into. Too much lame garage-punky stuff that reeks of too much weed/sunshine, but sometimes they hit gold. Like this very fun record which is also, boy, a whole thing to unpack.
Themed as pretty stereotypical Italian American greasers from New Jersey the Pizzas were never there to be taken seriously. I mean, just look at this album cover which seems straight from a Ralph Banshki demented ode to greasers Hey Good Lookin’. It perfectly showcases the music also; not an original bone in here, but man is it some good greasy shit. A Lot of Ramones, a lot of that New York Dolls wave of punk and quite a bit of Fear’s love for a solid 2-note guitar solo.
Nothing deep cutting here and as flat as a NYC pizza’s crust, but who needs deep dishes all the time. Ok enough with the pizza puns because this a fine slice of the end 00s/early 10s garage-(pop)-punk boom. Loads of stuff from that era was kinda indistinguishable so you got a lot of gimmicks. Remember Nobunny (well don’t anymore) or Peach Kelli Pop 50’s girlpop throwback, most likely not, but that was the shit of my early adult years. Stuff built on mostly borrowed riffs from obscure 70s (proto)-punk and powerpop records that most of the time wasn’t an improvement over the original, but whatever it was fun. I remember an Audacity show where I got pushed on the stage and the only way off was to crowd-surf. I mostly just remember a lot of sweat and beer, like cheap half liter cans we got.
Oh yeah Personal and The Pizzas. This record is great if you like catchy punk-music and can stand some prime greaser stuff. Even the acoustic(!) songs on this are solid, I Don’t Feel So Happy Now No More recalls some of power-pop’s finest sad sack moments. Oh yeah, some use of that hard R-word in one of the songs, because well it’s a bad (but also good) gimmick. There’s absolutely nothing new here but this is music to be played at a party or loudly sing along for half an hour and then forget the minute it finishes. Which by far is not a bad thing, the band is clearly a big joke. You can do so much worse with stuff out of this wave.
There’s a second Personal and The Pizzas record which is quite good, but really one record of these guys is enough. Even only for the tremendous ugly by design covert art by Ben Lyon. Fuck it i’m getting a cheese pizza tonight. They seem to have reunited earlier this year also but beside some live sets nothing else
Sloot Thoughts: I admire the commitment to the bit, and that it’s mostly enjoyable makes me like/hate it even more.
