Sniffany & The Nits are a deranged, genuinely troubling punk band from London featuring members of Joanna Gruesome, Ex-Void & The Tubs. Today they have announced that their debut album The Unscratchable Itch will be released via PRAH Recordings on 2 September 2022. Drawing a through line between the British post-punk of The Fall and the new wave of insolent hardcore typified by bands like Lumpy & The Dumpers, The Nits have developed a knack for writing unhinged punk earworms.But it’s Sister Sniffany, and her singular lyrical and performance style, who elevates the band beyond the sum of their influences. O Williams (Drums), Max ‘Wozza’ Warren (Bass) and Matt Green (Guitar) have been entrenched in the UK DIY scene for years, having played in the aforementioned bands, as well as countless others. Warren also runs the influential left-field label Gob Nation- a home for ‘egg punks’ across the country. As such, the band veer between atonal no-wave guitar assault, straight-up hardcore, goth/anarcho or whatever takes their fancy, while remaining identifiably Nit-like. Always grounded by a pounding, pogo-ing rhythm section, The Nits provide the perfect backdrop for Sister Sniffany’s wild, relentless live performances.Our take: Earlier this summer, a friend whose taste I respect told me how great the Sniffany & the Nits LP was, and that he couldn’t stop listening to it. I gave it enough of a listen online to confirm that I felt the same way, but I held off on bathing myself in The Unscratchable Itch until the vinyl arrived. Fuck, this record smokes! I liked Sniffany & the Nits’ earlier 7” on Thrilling Living Records (we even included the track “Horse Girl” on our Best of 2020 mix tape), but I like the The Unscratchable Itch even more. One of the first things I thought when I heard it was that it sounds a lot like the Das Drip record Sorry State released back in 2019. Like the Das Drip LP, The Unscratchable Itch is a hardcore record—loud, fast, and aggressive—but it’s bent in different directions. In most every song, the drummer plays the same fast punk beat for the length of the song, hammering repetitively until you feel like you’re spinning out, while the guitarist plays Joy Division melodies like they’re Darkthrone songs, the bassist holds it down, and the singer has what sounds like a tantrum or a mental breakdown. The lyrics are fantastic, many of them deploying rich, poetic images that evoke so much with just a few words. Many of the topics deal (sometimes obliquely) with sexual double standards and a feminine viewpoint of the world, and reading them—particularly since they’re so well done—makes me realize how rarely we hear women’s voices in hardcore punk. The record is furious and menacing, not a dud among its 10 tracks. If you like the aforementioned references and/or you dug the latest Amyl & the Sniffers record or Sorry State’s own No Love, give this a whirl… it’ll scratch an itch you might not even know you had. Note: As I’m writing this on October 5, 2022, this LP is out of stock at Sorry State. We’re working on getting more, but in the meantime I encourage you to use the “email me when available” button on our website. This one is worth waiting for!
