The Wet Teens – Let It Pee
“Your only chance to see a live Glam band … in South Carolina … was to start your own”.
So the press release goes, and The Wet Teens have done precisely this – twice. In the late 1970s, Michael Mercury ‘s band The Wet Teens were sadly short-lived, managing only to run off a small quantity of high-energy demos before tragedy struck, Mercury dying of syphilis.
Fast forward twenty-five years, and Michael Mercury’s nephew stumbles across the demo, re-records it (acquiring his uncle’s persona in the process), and The Wet Teens were born afresh. Remarkable info dump over, the Let It Pee of today is loud, crude and fun.
From the literal opener “An Introduction By Ron Jeremy ” to the punning album title to the simulated orgasm contained in “Stuck In You”, Let It Pee isn’t clever. Yet, the band know the strengths of the material and instead litter the short collection (just six tracks) with heavyweight guitar work that, even without the back-story, you just know is true to a time when axe-slaying ruled the airwaves.
Those that chime out in closer “Triple X Sex” bring the power of AC/DC to mind, the measured chug of the eyebrow-raising “Sweet Little Fag” is purely background to the stadium riffs that rip through its midsection. “Stuck In You” comes on entirely like a strutting Rolling Stones ballad only by way of Guns N’ Roses ‘ version of “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” thanks to its waterfalls of indulgent piano.
Cleanly produced, Let It Pee is frequently taken to the gutter by Mercury and his ghost with varied and unfaltering tales of promiscuity, and, in particular, of fellatio. See any track for proof, but these direct pearls probably take the biscuit: “Her heart is open, and so are her legs / She gives it to me, I don’t have to beg / The time has come girl for us to fuck”. It’s safe to say that this sort of thing would even make most modern commercial hip-hop lotharios blush.
Not for the fainthearted then, The Wet Teens nevertheless do history proud. It’ll be interesting to see if the current incarnation can strike it out on their own, but, for now, South Carolina can again ring to the sound of a Glam-rock thought forgotten, to a very welcome blast from the past.
Advised downloads: “Wet Teens” and “Stuck In You”.
~Let It Pee is out now on Silber Records .~