The Tenement Kids are from Holland and sound like Hot Water Music. They do it pretty well too - Quit Playing Them Strings is probably the best song HWM never wrote (the chorus is incredible), and Soul and Stampeding Cattle are huge tunes too.
The only reason I'd ever heard of the Tenement Kids before I saw them was because my friend Stubbs had a t-shirt of theirs. Shortly after they put this record out they toured and Stubbs put them on in Le Pub in Newport with Harbour and Blackbeard (Stubbs' band, which Hugh was briefly a member of) supporting. I couldn't remember who supported, but SWM reminded me. Anyway, it was a pretty fun night. There was a work "social" that night, so I had a couple of beers with them, got on a train to Newport and caught the show. All the bands were good and I picked up this LP and a t-shirt after the show (nice gatefold sleeve and coloured vinyl). We had a spare room at the time so the band ended up staying that night, an added bonus of which is that I got a lift home in the van. Anyway, on the way back to Cardiff I found out my work friends were still out in some shitty bar in town, but had latched onto a group of girls out for a hen weekend, so I got home, wiped off my gig-sweat, and headed out again. We all had a few more drinks until Jamie offended one of the girls and they all left. After that, we headed to chippy alley for some food and retied to our homes.
Most of that is totally off-topic, I know, but this album always reminds me of that night; a perfect mixture of punk-rock good times and good times drinking with my work buddies. Good times all round.
Format: 12", gatefold
Tracks: 11
Cost: £10 new
Bought: Gig
When: 22/05/09
Colour: Creamy/white
Etching: none
mp3s: download
