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Selfish C*nt Not Afraid to Share

Punk rock laden with egregious amounts of attitude and unbridled aggression tends to arrive on American shores and scare the skinny jeans right off of us Yanks. Selfish Cunt’s Friday night set at the weekly Ruff Club night, hosted by the Annex, was absolutely infused with attitude and aggression, but it was all delivered in lithe, smiling form by frontman Martin Tomlinson.

The singer’s choice to emerge in track pants initially felt way off target, especially in front of Ruff Club’s notoriously natty hordes, but his choice for comfort over couture soon became abundantly clear: easy access. In nearly every song, Tomlinson repeatedly handled his manhood, but not in a hulking, hip-hopper sort of way. It was in a bizarrely mesmerizing childlike manner, as if he’d just discovered the appendage last week, but smack dab in the middle of adolescence’s hormonal throes. Instead of yelping “fuck you” to New York, as another Brit-punk band might have done, Tomlinson wanted to have New York every which way to Sunday.

But once he chose to grab the mic more fervently than his package, Tomlinson and his band actually unleashed some solid tunes that ranged from Fugazi’s sandpaper riffage to more frothy, Buzzcocks-style thrash. STORY AND VIDEO BY PETER GASTON / PHOTOS BY DAVE GUSTAV

Now Watch This: Selfish Cunt at Ruff Club, Feb. 2, 2007

Talk: Is this band worth getting past the name? COMMENT

On SPIN.com:
Selfish Cunt at SXSW ’05

On the Web:
Selfish Cunt on MySpace
Ruff Club NYC