September 12, 2011
I’m confused. Wasn’t/isn’t there a German folk-punk band of the Pogues school of song writing also called The Bleeding Hearts. These Folk’n’Glory guys are quite clearly English and from reading their promo material, our new friends from the West Midlands have been around since ’95 or so. Maybe the same band? Maybe I just imagined the Germans?
Anyway Germans or no Germans, this bunch of Bleeding Hearts take a distinctly English approach to folk-punk and so like a lot of English bands in this genre they bow down at the alter of THE LEVELLERS. The Bleeding Hearts have roots in the whole anarcho punk thing – both in style and substance though with sometimes a slight metallic undercurrent along with highly caffeinated fiddles that bring to mind Cornwall’s BATES MOTEL. The only thing that doesn’t gell well with me is the vocals often hit the heavy metal register – but nothing that a daily habit of a few packs of cigarettes and a bottle of whiskey can’t cure. Bleeding Hearts are the type of band to best enjoyed on the festival circuit surrounded by white people with dreadlocks, painful looking piercing’s and BO problems, though if those logistics don’t work for you then Folk’n’Glory is a good substitute.
Shite'n'Onions 