Street Worms, Sunny

One of my old roommates worked at pasta bar Fiorella in Philly. He said one of the cooks in there loved listening to the Viagra Boys and would often play whole albums during dinner service in the kitchen. "Sports" was a consistent hit. Thinking about the stress of preparing a dozen pasta dishes across several hours while whatever grizzled cooks are blasting euro-punk music just trips me up. Such stories make me realize I couldn't hack it in service.

At first we just enjoyed the concept of a band called "Viagra Boys." Like anything you listen to "ironically" long enough, eventually you're listening unironically. I got that roommate Welfare Jazz on CD for their birthday, and then later on a record when we realized no one had a CD player.

These Viagra Boys are an interesting bunch to listen to over several tracks, several times. Whoever plays the bass should probably get a raise. "Sports" and "Worms" stand out in their own heavy, tongue-in-cheek, jammy way. Other tracks are relatively fine. Strong basslines, some weird sounds, and a whole lot of this dude yelling about society and little aural paintings of doing drugs or acting like a total misanthrope in said society. There's definitely more energy in some of the mid-album tracks, which tack towards straight-up frenetic.

Sometime around the n-th time watching the music video for "Sports" with my old roommates late on a drinking night did I better see the ironic thing these Boys are going for. 

Less than 40 minutes, minimal filler. That's great. Album has enough grooves to enjoy a few times over. And even to cook to, which I guess makes sense in retrospect. And of course, it is the sort of band and album name that, when prompted "what are we listening to?" the simplest answer to the uninitiated is "Swedish punk music."