The Manks Last New Wave Hero!!!!!! CD
Japan’s the MANKS ran from 1994–2001 as part of the Chiba punk scene, and Last New Wave Hero!!!!!!! collects eight tracks of their extremely lo-fi garage/’77-style punk, pulled from demos and compilation appearances recorded thirty years ago. It’s raw, unvarnished, recorded-in-the-basement rock delivered with a bratty, high-energy sneer. “My Generation” might be the highlight for me, although at 2:52, it’s the longest song on the collection and probably could’ve been trimmed. It all falls into that wonderfully sloppy zone where there’s way more spirit than technical finesse, but I think the potential really shines through. Members later went on to the SPIT, the PLASTERS, and, more recently, SPIT-TN, but this CD captures the scrappy origin point and it’s better than it has any right to be.