Punk rock can be scary, like the way the Misfits looked. Or it can be even more sneakily sinister, like The Pukes. “Murder” and “Execution” are nearly self-explanatory titles for the songs comprising the Milwaukee band’s first small slab of vinyl following an eponymous cassette EP last year. But the giddiness of their muddied surf-guitar reverb and dual lead singers trading lines in an anthemic manner that brings a Mitch Miller chorus-gone-punk to mind, is uniquely queasy-making. A-side of this seven-incher is prefaced by a vintage news report of Jeffrey Dahmer’s gruesome crimes, and its flip featuring a coda of horror movie screams and cackles. If The Pukes can sustain this kind of deviltry over the course of an entire album and beyond, Glenn Danzig’s old Frankenstein-looking bandmates have some serious competition in the fright stakes.
