BOLANOW BRAWL are now proving that Hamburg is a good address for street punk with their first full-length album ‘First Shots!’, which follows on from their debut EP ‘Total Escalation’, which was released almost nine years ago. They're taking it easy in the north - but now they want to do it again.
The band name - a combination of the cheap vodka brand BOLANOW and the English BRAWL for brawl or scuffle - refers to the ambivalent experiences the band members had under the influence of alcohol in their youthful recklessness.
Fast guitar riffs, driving drum beats and rough, often snotty vocals form the musical framework of the Hanseatic band - which contrasts with the catchy lead guitar melodies. Singalongs give the sound a beery touch. The mixture of English, American and Buxtehude style elements gives the twelve songs that certain something that characterizes the style of BOLANOW BRAWL.
The old platitude of ‘lyrics written by life’ also applies to the songs of BOLANOW BRAWL. Their own experiences, observations and experiences from the world of work, subculture and society flow into the lyrics - without a raised index finger, but with a raised beer bottle. The cover design was created by Alteau, a French-Belgian skinhead and comic artist who published his first works in Spirou comic magazine at the age of 14. Since the late 1980s, he has designed a number of album covers for punk and Oi! bands - including Klasse Kriminale, Rancid, Bérurier Noir and The Herberts, in which he was also active as a singer.