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Bitch Alert are a two girl, one boy Finnish combo with a penchant for loud, dirty, punk rock. Combine that with the fact that the band members aren't too hard on the eyes and a sound that would fit snugly alongside current industry favourites The Distillers, and you have a recipe for success and a 1000 sweaty-palmed reviews from undersexed adolescents and grown men who should know better.
Terrible band name aside, this is a rather good album. They wear their influences proudly and it's probably not too much of leap of faith to imagine that the various members spent long periods of their teenage years sat in bedrooms adorned with Kurt Cobain posters listening to obscure Seattle bands.
In fact it is Mrs. Cobain, Courtney Love and her band Hole that first spring to mind here. There's the same snotty-nosed arrogance and conviction that made albums like Live Through This hold your attention and now that Miss Love seems to have finally dedicated herself to falling wide-eyed out of courtrooms, there's a space in the market that Bitch Alert could easily fill.
There's enough raw rage and punk spirit to satisfy the indie scene, but there's also a pop edge that keeps them MTV friendly with enough appeal to crossover to more mainstream success. Recent single Loveson is a perfect example as the band go down the well worked quiet, LOUD, quiet routine perfected by the likes of the Pixies to great effect and it is a formula they go on to utilise again and again.
The music is kept brutally simple so that none of the band's youthful energy is lost in the recording process. Much of the credit though must got to lead vocalist Heinie, whose discordant, rage-fuelled singing lifts Bitch Alert's power punk pop above their peers.
Whether Bitch Alert heralds in a new era of stroppy teenage girls cutting and pasting fanzines together in their bedrooms and raging against the man machine remains to be seen. But for a debut album, Bitch Alert have delivered a wickedly messy dose of buzzsaw guitars and p***ed off rantings on an album that would have easily found a place on the shelves of the band members' younger selves.
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