When I heard that The Whole Sick Crew was a pirate band from St. Louis, I honestly wasn’t expecting too much. Call it geographical prejudice, but I figured if St. Louis was hundreds of miles from the ocean, it would most certainly be too far away to live if you’re a Salty Dog right? How on earth could a landlocked pirate band possibly be any good with out saltwater in the air??

Well, I was wrong about the whole “landlocked pirate” thing, because I was very impressed when I played this album for the first time. According to the band bio, The Whole Sick Crew plays all-acoustic, anachronistic folk-punk sea songs, jigs, and original pirate ballads. Not storybook pirates, mind you, but songs that are as caustic and ugly as the band members themselves. It’s a perfect description if you ask me. This isn’t a festival costume pirate band at all! In this reviewers opinion, it’s: Grade A 100% Nautical-Pirate-Punk. An interesting thing to point out is it’s also acoustic, and the lyrics do an excellent job of telling the tales of all forms of pirate life, including disease, executions, evil scallywags, and port whores. The vocals somewhat remind me of The Ruffians.

Formed in June 2002, they haven’t exactly sailed the seven seas yet, but with the material they’ve made so far, i’ll have to keep a eye on these guys! Argghhh!

The songs include:

1. Honest Sailor
2. Crimes At Sea
3. The Effigy Song
4. O’Keene The Mean
5. Girl At Every Port
6. The SLow Song
7. Captain Samson’s Song
8. The Vomits

September 2003

Review by Brian “Capt. Redbeard” Gillespie