Randy Burk (drums), Greg Lisher (guitar), Spike Slawson (bass), Johnny Bonnel and Darius Koski (dual vox) released the first Filthy Thieving Bastards offering, A Melody of Broken Quills and Retreads back in 1999. One might wonder what could take a five-man band six skriking years to put another bloody album together; but the answer is quite simple.
In the remainder of their time, these gentlemen are quite busy. Burk is a producer (Subside, The Riffs, and of course the Bastards). Bonnel, Koski and Lawson all put time in the Swingin’ Utters, with Lawson additionally supplying the vox in Me First and The Gimme Gimmes. And Lisher is better known as the guitarist in Camper Van Beethoven. Welcome to the Rockoholics Unanimous meeting!
Taking a road less traveled, Johnny Peebucks and company piece together another tome in the extended Utters realm with acoustic jams that sound more like the Ramones gone country, the Pogues gone British expatriate, or, as the bio states quite acurately, “Billy Bragg as a crusty old punk on a bender”.
My Pappy was a Pistol inspires the inner old drinker, assuring us that whiskey can’t stifle a prolific man of words. This is the perfect drinking music on a cool, cloudy day at home alone, or for an intimate all-day-er at an under-populated bar.
