Pizza of Death (1996)
Husking Bee is a band that I discovered when I used to run the old website for Snuff. Through that site I made friends with a guy from Japan named Tetsu. He was the first person I knew in Japan that would help me buy records. He also made mix tapes for me of Japanese punk rock and he put Husking Bee on one of those early tapes. I absolutely loved them and had Tetsu help hunt me down everything by them he could find. I never got any of the albums on vinyl back then, but he did hook me up with the CDs of their first two albums. It was pretty weird to see the second Husking Bee album, Put On Fresh Paint released in America a bit later.
But back to this album. Grip is the first Husking Bee full length and it came out on Pizza of Death. This one was never released in America and while I've had the CD for about twenty years now, the vinyl has eluded me. I finally caved in when a copy on Discogs dropped to a price I was comfortable paying and I'm just really happy to have this record in the collection. Those first two Husking Bee records are pretty much perfect.
Grip is a straight forward pop punk record, with dynamic hooks, tons of energy and melodies that have been stuck in my head for decades. I've feel like on this album in particular, there are a lot of similarities to the old midwestern band Walker, particularly in the guitar riffage. Husking Bee vocals are gruffer and more melodic, but I feel like they are kindred spirits. Songs like "8.6," "Share The Joy Of Our Tour" and "Anchor"kick my ass after all of these years, but I'll always keep coming back to the song "Question." It's different from everything else on the album as it's built on a bouncy piano riff, but it's just so great and one of my favorite songs the band ever did. Unfortunately it's not one I can find on YouTube. Trust me, it's great.
Husking Bee - "8.6":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHTBjnqLv64
Husking Bee - "Anchor":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfbN7mw0qr4
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