Bugger Off!

If you thought Stack Waddy's debut album was a brute, then their follow-up is positively antisocial. Titled with such a glaring eye for controversy that many U.K. record stores simply refused to stock it (but would the band countenance a name change? Would they hell!), Bugger Off! picked up where its predecessor left off, and rampaged on from there. Covers of Zappa's "Willy the Pimp" and the Kinks' "You Really Got Me" might have seemed a little obvious, but both are battered down with such a glorious lack of finesse that it's impossible to object -- anybody familiar with, respectively, Juicy Lucy and the Hammersmith Gorillas' versions of the same songs will come in with at least a vague idea of what to expect, but that's about it. "Hoochie Coochie Man" is even more disheveled, and when John Peel's liner notes reminisce on the group's insistence on recording live, you can tell he's not necessarily looking back with any fondness. On one occasion, he suggested they do a little overdubbing. The band's response to his words would become the album's title. ~ Dave Thompson