An 8 track 10″ here with songs about beer, free chips, skateboarding and the boring mundanity of every day life. For some people their lockdown project was tidying the garden or painting or doing zoom quizzes or fixing up a campervan. Well Sympos already had the camper van so the three Waterford lads decided to do something with the songs they had been jamming with for a few years. The whole package is one with three tongues in cheek, or if they are not they don’t really mind. They are three lads playing punk rock and enjoying themselves while they are at it.
As someone who has listened to plaenty of punk rock in my life this is a fine collection of tunes and would be perfect alongside Hard Skin. I remember the first time I heard Hard Skin, I was wondering what happened to these lovable punk rock lads. The Fat Bob I used to know didn’t drink alcohol or want Lamb Chops and Mint Sauce and then I got it. A will to do their own thing and question you, the listener, while they are at it. And have some fun in the meantime. Sympos and Hard Skin are two bands full of in jokes but no doubt when it comes time to fight the good fight they will be on the right side.
According to the bands urban dictionary SYMPOS are the little few free chips you get when you order a battered sausage or something similar from a proper chipper. We used to call them odds, burdocks used to call them scratchings but thankfully it is about chips and nothing else. And there is the dilemna, taken at face value these are all fine Oi Punk tunes. First glance and listens can be misleading. I sent the band some questions, wondering about the name and the song title “Fuck Off mongos” I got an answer about chips and skateboarding so I did my own research. Considering the band have racked up 4 decades of skateboarding between them it shouldn’t be a surprise that they have a song about skaters using their front foot for pushing, also known as Mongo foot. They could have songs about Switch, Fake or Ollie but that wouldn’t have caused as musc concern. They nearly got me too. I can now sing along feeling i should have tried harder on the board back in my teenage years.
I asked about the songs and was told that “The songs are little snippets of our imagination and experience. Things we like, things that piss us off, whatever”. This is emo without the emotion, songs that are all meaningful to these three lads in Waterford but I’m sure any samll group of working class individuals may feel something similar as they grow up wondering what’s going on. If the young Offenders moved across the border from cork and started a punk band this is what it would be like
Overall a great tuneful punk rock album
Niallhope
Is Sympos your lockdown project? Why a band and not a camper van?
1. SYMPOS actually predates lock down. We started jamming and writing a couple of years ago but lockdown kicked in right around the time we should have been driving 5 hours to play a support slot to 5 people…..and we already have a campervan.
What is a sympo or mongo in your world
2. According to urban dictionary SYMPOS are the little few free chips you get when you order a battered sausage or something similar from a proper chipper.
What was your life like pre lockdown?
3. Life before lockdown was the same old story but with more pubs and gigs.
How long have you been skateboarding? What came first, the music or skating? Is there a link between the 2 for you ?
4. Punk rock and skateboarding have been inextricably linked since the beginning. Between us we have racked up about 40 years on the board.
Are the songs reflections of your life?
5. The songs are little snippets of our imagination and experience. Things we like, things that piss us off, whatever.
Does booze play a big part in that life? Is it for escape?
6. We all took the pledge when we did our confirmation and we’ve been doing our best since then OK?
Who are Ratboi and Doug the night?
7. Ratboi is our friend and Doug is not. I can’t say anymore about it due to pending legal proceedings.
Layton Malone or leave them alone?
8. Layton Malone is a real man, please don’t bother him.
