PRESS

“The best new band I’ve seen in ages”  

– Billy Chainsaw

 

At six songs this EP offers the value for money of a mini-album. Better still the songs have a madcap theatrical energy, akin to Nick Cave playing it for kitsch kicks. It also captures the raw energy of deranged drug-crazy burlesque tents that haunt the wee hours of 21st century festivals. Rasp Thorne sounds like a cross between the late great Lux interior of The Cramps and the very much alive Marc Almond at his sleaziest. Words pour out of Thorne as he tells his greasy stories - "You look so pretty sucking that old shotgun" - and The Briars muster a tasty racket some-where between The Bookhouse Boys and The Fall, which is surely no bad thing. As a debut re-lease it sets out a tempting stall laden with deep south sin and the promise of a rumbustious live show.

– The Arts Desk

 

If there’s one thing I like more than punk rock it’s decadent, theatrical punk rock with a dark twist. As you can imagine this is not something that comes my way very often. As luck would have it, that’s exactly the kind of rock peddled by Rasp Thorne & The Briars. The London based quartet have spent the last two years honing their unique sound and the result is this fabulous debut EP ‘Debutante Warnings’. The EP’s lead track and my favourite song is the splendid ‘Operator Taunt’ which utilises Hammond organ to magnificent effect; if Derek Jarman were to direct an episode of Tales of The Unexpected the soundtrack would be this, a deliciously over the top song with Rasp sounding like Vincent Price. Elsewhere on EP there are songs featuring shotgun sucking pornstars (‘you look so pretty sucking that old shotgun’), Cruella DeVille and dystopian wax, such is the world in which Montana born lyricist Rasp Thorne lives. A world worth visiting!

– Mark Cousens, Punk Rock ist Nicht Tot, www.punkrockistnichttot.com

 

The Sound And The Fury might be arguably one of William Faulkner’s most thought-provoking novels, but its title and themes of morality, sin and redemption certainly can be applied to Rasp Thorne & The Briars.

Montana-born performance artist, poet and musician Rasp Thorne invited to an array of songs as twisted as the bowels of hell, as decadent as Anita Berber’s dance routines and yet as bittersweet as a ‘Three Toed Sloth’ bourbon.

While on this occasion Rasp and his band The Briars did not perform a full set, they certainly delivered their goods to the full. Playing tracks from their newly released EP ‘Debutante Warnings’ (see separate review) as well as selected other material, the small but atmospheric basement venue of Ryans Bar added to the intimate ambience.

 It is difficult to pinpoint the music of Rasp. Perhaps it is best described as a mixture of Southern Gothic country punk with added elements of experimental cabaret – an intriguing and rhythmic concoction influenced by the likes of Nick Cave, Tom Waits, Screamin’ Jay, Blixa Bargeld… you get the idea. At the same time, it doesn’t sound like it’s a copy of the aforementioned artists. It sounds like Rasp Thorne & The Briars. Period.

Lyrically, well, here is an artist who has walked the sewers accompanied by lowlife and emerged to tell the tales. Someone who lives by his own unholy gospel, though often with an underlying current of morality.

 

 – Claudia A, Music News, www.musicnews.com

 

"The American North-West has inspired many a rock an' roller to kick against the pricks and Montanan gutter-crawler Rasp Thorne, with his band the Briars, is no exception. Delicately beglittered and resplendent in a white suit and no shirt, he served up an intriguing collision of glam provocation and Weimar cabaret. Thorne's sin-splattered tales of the demimonde were delivered with lip-smacking relish: whores, murder, revenge, you know the score. The band featuring a foxy female drummer and what appears to be The Actor Kevin Eldon kept the drama going as their charismatic frontman groped himself and pinballed around the stage… occasionally launching himself head-first at the dancefloor (£8 per dry-clean, we're told). The vibe is a rockier take on Tom Waits’ freakshow carnival and Nick Cave’s tales of sin, sex and death done darn well by a bloody good band having a whale of a time. And while they may be on first, they steal the show nevertheless."

 

– Bearded Magazine, www.beardedmagazine.com