WRR #77 - The Itch The Courage to be Hated
	CD - $10
	LP - $10 This CD is also availble at www.interpunk.com
	The Itch is back with a brand-new, fantastic, wheeling and dealing full-length record! Now is your chance to learn about "Shotgun Bob," "Josephine," "Kitty's Scream" and even "Jim's Final Ride on the Night Train"! The Itch will also teach you about "Overcoming Geographical Disadvantages"! You might have passed up the band's 7-inch record, but "This Time," you'll be doing yourself a favor by picking up The Courage to be Hated! (2006)
	Track Listing

Here is what The Trouble With Normal had to say about this record:

I know it sounds like a cliché but I’d been going through my backlog pile of CDs lately and while straightening things up I found this CD. These guys seem to exist in the gray area blending raw greasy punk rock seasoned with elements of garage, and surf instrumental music. The songs are delivered meat and potatoes with a fair amount of sarcasm as they take on such topics as women, sex, the Internet, and jail along with a few instrumentals. Simple and often in your face, The Itch’s music is not reinventing the wheel obviously but their snide take on punk leaning rock will have some appeal to many readers. (BOONE)

Here is what Now Wave had to say about this record:

Is it lazy to start a review by quoting a band's entire bio? Perhaps it is, but The Itch are far more qualified than I to sum up their essence. So here goes:

"THE ITCH is what happens when a frustrated artist, a former vagabond and a reformed political extremist, who are all disillusioned by music, get together and start a band. Hailing from the cultural hubcap of the Bible belt, SW Missouri, THE ITCH makes a hobby out of desecrating the sanctity of music theorists and rock traditionalists. Refusing to be pegged or labeled, they barrel across the spectrum of music styles in their writing and are known for short, sharp sets on stage and rapid schizophrenic changes in their music. Their lyrical subjects are less concerned with ingenuity, enlightenment and meaning then they are with first hand experiences and story telling. THE ITCH guarantees to entertain a crowd with attention deficit disorders and personality flaws and to alienate self righteous musicians and hipsters."

Great stuff, guys! Great stuff! What a shame it would have been to read a write-up like that and then discover that the band actually sucked ass. Thankfully, that wasn't the case at all. The Courage to be Hated, The Itch's full-length debut, is simply a great fucking album. I hate to break out the cliches so early in the day, but what a breath of fresh air this disc is!

The Itch reminds me of the kind of band that would have been on SST Records back in the '80s. And it's not that they sound like any of the old SST bands. It's just that they seem to belong to a bygone era of underground music - when being a "punk" band didn't mean limiting yourself musically. Nowadays, most punk bands want to fit themselves into a tidy, easily marketable category. And that's why groups like The Itch are such a joy to hear. The majority of the time, these guys rip it up in a furious punk style reminiscent of early '80s hardcore (albeit with a distinctly rural Midwestern flavor). But then they'll turn around and surprise you with a crazy instrumental or an inspired surf/cowpunk/rock n' roll scorcher like "Josephine". And even at their "punkest", they manage to sound wildly inventive and totally unlike any other band out there. The typical hardcore punk band brings little to the table besides rage and aggression - and sometimes that's enough. But The Itch infuses its breakneck musical assault with personality, humor, catchiness, and variety. This group isn't just here to batter your eardrums - it's made a record you can actually enjoy listening to!

Everything that's good about good punk is abundant on this album. The playing is powerful and dynamic, the vocals are delivered with urgency and conviction, and the songs are freakin' amazing. Tunes like "Fuck Face", "Three Legged", and "Hearing Aid" are as good as anything I've heard this year from a punk band. And if "County Jail Blues" doesn't have you pumping your fist and singing along at the top of your lungs, you might want to check and see if you still have a pulse! Anyone who claims to dislike hardcore punk has probably never heard a hardcore punk album like this one.

How sad it is that punk music this good exists - yet the mainstream press always insists on heralding the latest corporate-sponsored gang of hipster pretty boys as the new punk saviors. Thank God for the true underground!
---Lord Rutledge June 27, 2006

Here is what Ear Candy had to say about this record:

D. Boon would have loved these guys. They remind me of everything I personally loved about the Minutemen. Eighteen slices of fast, in your face, punk / jazz outburst with fun and somewhat provocative lyrics. The songs are short and sweet, never boring or repetitive and they stick with you like peanut butter to the roof of your mouth. This is a keeper and I think I’ll file it next to the Minutemen just as a reference and to give Boon some worthy company. Very highly recommended.

Here is what Slug Magazine had to say about this record:

The Itch = A hint of the Dead Kennedys attitude and sound mixed with a touch of the U.S. Bombs
The Itch is not your average punk band. With four of the 18 tracks on The Courage to be Hated being instrumental, The Itch make a slightly different impression than other bands in their respective genre. Not to say there aren’t punk bands that do instrumental tracks, it’s just not common. The title of the album would infer that they don’t care whether people will like that (or anything about them) or not. Sometimes having the courage to be hated is the best way to be loved. Wow, that’s deep. The Itch’s sound would be a perfect fit for the soundtrack of the early 80s movie Suburbia, with their rough early 80s punk style and energy. “Josephine,” “This Time,” “Hitting Bottom” and “County Jail Blues,” are the easy stand-outs on The Courage to be Hated. --Jeremy Wilkins

Here is what No Front Teeth had to say about this record:

Fantastic name and great cover…this is a fine fucking record. Stripped down and raw erratic punk rock just the way I craze it. It verges on very early hardcore at times and that suits me perfectly. The urgency and energy is awesome, they keep all the songs short, mostly around the two-minute mark and that’s another thing that gets me excited. No fucking about, just energetic pressure and attack, attack, attack!! 18 tracks in half an hour is definitely my bag. There’s a whole bunch of instrumentals on here and yet another thing I love about it…these guys just blow me away. I truly was itching for a release like this…I haven’t been this keyed up and excited about a band in a long time and I don’t see this leaving my stereo at least until the fall…this certainly will be my soundtrack to the summer.

Here is what Scabz-N-Bones had to say about this record:

This band kicks ass, 18 awesome songs clocking in right at 30 minutes. Every song on here makes you think of so many bands, they really cover the spectrum of music. These guys remind me alot of Electric Frankenstein, Dead Kennedys, Riot Squad, and The Meatmen. From beginning to end The Itch kick out some badass riffs and use them to weave in and out of some killer songs. The instrumentals rock just as hard as the songs with vocals and the album runs so well together making it a definate favorite in my book. My favorites include Likely Story, Three Legged, Attack of the Social Chameleons Rock and Roll Messiah and This Time. Go check out The Itch and grab their new CD from Wee Rock Records

Here is what Reviewer magazine had to say about this record:

The Courage to Be Hated is a unique virtue to have; especially in the music business, where one has to bare their soul and stand there on stage delivering to an audience what may or may not be accepted or liked or understood, sometimes. That takes some jadedness, some balls and no fear of rejection is allowed. The Itch don’t care what you think of them. They know they rock and they just go ahead and do it. “The Courage to Be Hated” is a punk-rock opus – 18 songs, about 2 minutes each, on average; short, to the point and concise, all the fat has been trimmed off. It is a good record; one rockin’ jam after another. Each song just sort of melds into the next one and it gets better and better, climbing up to a climax and leveling off, finally ending right on time. – KM.