3937604572-1Faux Kings – self-styled Intercontinental Champions of Rock & Roll – scream novelty, from the wearing of masks at their gigs to the chosen subject matter of their output. Wrestle’n’roll they call it. This brief release grabs some past masters in a lo-fi headlock and chokes out some similarities – Chuck Berry, Thee Headcoats, Dead Kennedys, pub rock in the 999 mould. These are all good things. There’s none of your fancy stuff here, this is bread’n’butter’n’gruel recorded in the most basic way.

King Of The Ring opens with a fighter’s bell, and for the next six minutes we’re circling the canvas with the Faux Kings, with no-nonsense riffing, chest-beating bluster, and Marty McFly guitar solos. Exotico continues in a retro psychobilly vein before The Crusher, a scuzzy cover of The Novas 1964 song – “Do the hammerlock, you turkey necks”. The band make a faithful stab at the howls and growls that made the original so distinctive, until the bell once again calls time.

Is there a place for a band that sings exclusively about wrestling? Of course there is you turkeynecks. The Hanson Brothers have been writing about hockey and beer for over twenty-five years, and if puck rock is still ticking the boxes then there’s room for wrestle’n’roll. For now, this serving of raucous instrument beating will do nicely. Let’s see what happens in Round 2.