Moron Butler

Moron Butler/ Dealing With Damage - Split 7" (Single, 2025)

Self Release

The third release from Moron Butler, although it hurts me* to say it, is a (very) minor disappointment.

Lee Harvey Does Dallas is so brief as to be nothing but frustrating; while previous short songs have had a spartan lyrical brevity (often just one repeated line), this hints at the complex interweaving of subjects that usually populate their lyrics, and so feels like a fragment of a longer song that I want to hear the rest of. Sometimes, more is more.

They Died With their Boots On despite being one of their best tunes and lyrics, has a production that is just too polite, the drums and guitar are too low in the mix for it to have the impact it deserves, and the saxophone meanders when it should scream and wail.

Having said that, it is a FANTASTIC song; a relatively straightforward (for them) story of a veteran returning from the second world war with a head full of nightmares to find America as broken and divided as the war-torn landscapes of Europe ("He returned to these shores, to see crosses burning on lawns"), with his life and sanity permanently fractured by his experiences ("He can still feel the rain against his face, as he bends down to tighten the scope to the end of his rifle").

And so, on to Dealing With Damage; I have fond memories of Sink (Ed Wenn’s old band) and their part in 'the '90s punk rock renaissance'** (Snuff, Leatherface, Silverfish, Senseless Things, Wat Tyler), but I am sad to report that the two songs on offer are merely OK.

Head Full of Feedback is a slight tale of meeting Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon in the mid '80s, not liking the copy of EVOL he was given, but coming around to liking them over a period of years. The last verse with the line "Inspirational, dissonant output" made me laugh, but although it’s pleasant enough, but it fails to grip.

But Fear This Art appears to be a manifesto of sorts, about trying to live a creative life in the modern age, referencing Cut by The Slits as an inspiration of sorts. The music is more adventurous, and the lyrics have moments of real power, but it's way too polite for me.

Moron Butler: 8/10, Dealing With Damage: 6/10, Overall: 7/10.

*And it really does.

**A term which I have recently coined, that no one else understands, let alone uses.

Nick Hydra (March 2025)

Moron Butler/The Hellfire Orchestra - Split 7" (Single, 2024)

Self Release

I don't know what’s going on out on the Kentish coast, but something is stirring deep in the marshes…

Another two great songs from Moron Butler - rapidly becoming my new favourite band; the first, Did He Really Just Say Vietcong On Carson, is a claustrophobic snarl of a song, with a circular, spiralling groove, coiling ever tighter as the apocalyptic lyrics wind in and out of the tune, getting darker and darker as it moves towards the (literal and figurative) end.

Aided by judicious use of delay on the vocals, the lyrics (as ever) don't make literal sense, being a collection of vignettes of despair and pain talking of "Crucifixions on street corners" and "Disgruntled workers, Pulling pistols from under desks, Screaming Here’s my fucking top five", but the overall effect is just… fantastic. Mutilation is, as it says, 'progress'.

Second offering Waugh And Peace, clocking in at just 44 seconds, has less lyrics and less time to build tension, and has consequently, less impact, but it's a very fine thing, nonetheless.

The Hellfire Orchestra have a worrying tendencies towards 'Folk Punk' and a touch of The King Blues around the edges, but happily there is faint evidence of such in the two offerings here. Talisman is a break-neck (1 min 27 secs) rush through a great lyric - "I'm just doing the best I can, In this city of also-rans, This quagmire of abandoned plans, Where it's up to you, it's up you" (not sure what it's about, not sure that matters too much.

New Sparta is less frantic, and has a nice understanding of building up tension with the use of drop-outs. By no means a bad song, but doesn't quite grip me.

Moron Butler: 9/10, Hellfire Orchestra: 7/10, overall: 8/10

Nick Hydra (June 2024)

Moron Buter/Girls Like Us - Split 7" (Single, 2023)

Self Release

Despite being a newish band (and definitely new to me), and having a not-that-great name, Moron Butler are very impressive; playing a type of claustrophobic post-punk that used to be described as 'angular' - think Wire/ Gang of Four with a dash of (whisper it) poetry in the lyrics. They seem to share core members with The Long Knives, and so sound similar, but slightly less musically direct.

Play That Dead Band's Song is a tightly wound, densely worded dissection of the events that led up to (and resulted from) the Black Lives Matter movement - and how little has changed - with fantastic leaps of logic, and phrasing - "In the twenties it was ropes and trees/ Now in the twenties it's necks and knees." – referencing Fred Hampson, John Cassavettes and (possibly) Kent State.

A Farewell To Arms is a less complex, but nonetheless heartfelt attack on militarism, which avoids the cliches of the 'War is bad' genre by virtue of its lyrical brevity. I could have done without the saxophone, but that just me.

Girls Like Us first offer up Song of the Wytches, which is more of a straight ahead punk rock proposition, and none the worse for it. Based loosely on the witches speech from Macbeth, it deals with the fatal consequences of misogyny ("You watched those witches burn"). There’s a good grasp of dynamics on display and they know a tune when they hear it, so it's by no means a rama-lama three chord thrash, but Spoonfed is more musically adventurous, dropping the tempo and leaving space for swathes of feedback (always a good thing).

Although it's an angry attack on privilege ("We all know the law/ Only applies to the poor"), there’s space to express vulnerability ("I spilt too much/ Drank too much wine"), so it isn't just an exercise in finger pointing. 8/10

Nick Hydra (January 2024)

https://moronbutler.bandcamp.com/

https://girlslikeus.bandcamp.com/