The Flytraps – Wild Card
THE FLYTRAPS
“Wild Card”
Wild Card
Burger Records / Outro Records (2020)
https://burgerrecords.com/product/the-flytraps-wild-card/
https://outrorecords.com/12-vinyl-record-store
One of the stand out moments at pretty much any Flytraps gig is when tall bassist/front woman/vixen Kristin Cooper, often clad in a pair of her signature stylishly kinky, high heeled leather boots that enable her to tower over the audience bellows out that her gender is “more deadly than the male” in their song “Female of the Species”. It always resounds as a declaration to be truly reckoned with. Whether she’s cheering an opening band or strutting it up on stage with the Flytraps, Kristin exudes a compelling aura of confidence and punk rock sangfroid that fully lives up to her reputation as a one-woman Rocknroll bacchanal. Aided and abetted by ever smilin’ ‘n shreddin’ guitarist Elizabeth Boyd and Wildman drummer Fabian Ruiz, all friends since high school, this volatile female dominated trio formed out of the coastal region of Orange County are tethered together, as it were, by a shared love of psychedelic garage, old school punk and rockabilly. Since then The Flytraps have made their bones with a number of appearances at the annual Oakland fest Burger Boogaloo along with a choice slot on the 2018 Burger A Go Go tour side by side with the Coat Hangers and Death Valley Girls, packed gigs opening for the likes of Redd Kross, the Dead Boys and the Distillers and a featured song in a second season episode of Netflix/Marvel’s Iron Fist.
The band’s first full length album titled appropriately enough Wild Card, features a few previously released songs from Outro records and Burger records, and is a straight ahead unrelenting punk rock affair genre-wise with a few nods to garage and rockabilly while the songs themselves espouse a particularly deviate ethos and a couple of references to podophilia (or foot worship, for the uninitiated) in the title track and “Baby’s A Freak”. Produced at Jazzcat Studios in Long Beach by Johnny Bell, the twelve tracks contained on this recording bristle with a raw energy that brings to mind the earliest releases of the Weirdos, Motorhead and yes, the Ramones. Alternating between frenetic numbers that burst out at a breakneck pace (“Wild Card”, “All Talk”) and bouncy up tempo riff driven tunes (“Baby’s A Freak”, “Sunset Strip R.I.P.”), this album delivers a glorious sonic attack enhanced by the band’s secret weapon Beth who displays some serious rock ‘n roll chops on her guitar solos and is anchored by the ferocious thunder of Fabian Ruiz’s drums. In the grand tradition of the Cramps, the Flytraps create and play debauched party music for freaks that even vanilla punk rock fans can enjoy!