BANTAM ROOSTER "I, Gemini" Estrus/"Mexican Leather" Big Neck 7in: When did Estrus stop being a premiere label? I mean, the songs here aren't bad but it seems the may have had some tape left over and Potter said "Alright! Estus single...and a one and a 2. Gotta give 'em a big "WOO!!" though for having Ko (Come Ons/...and the Midnight Intruders) purrs on the b-side.
The "Mexican Leather" single is a whole 'nother story. Shit! Goddamn!! Any doubts of the ability of Bantam Rooster Mach II abilty to STOMP are laid to rest. For all I know the a-side may be a love letter for Tijuana in all it's bad whiskey Pretty Things rowdiness but the b-side "Summer In Hamtramck" is the stunner. I've seen Tom on many a late night. Here' it sounds like it's another one and he's preparing for the stroll home. He'll stay in the next night, sit on his porch with his High Life's and watch weird shit go down. Ther'e nothing like the warm weather month's in Detroit for real life trash TV moments. This smolders more than the dumpster on the corner. (Estrus and Big Neck)
BASEBALL FURIES "I Hate Your Secret Club" (Estrus 7in EP): Have our favorite Buffalo NY screwups gone straight? Is this the new, more mature Baseball Furies? The earsplitting blur of their earlier records has been toned down for this three songer but they're still more wolverine friendly that bunny soft. It's just that you can hear everything. Sounding like they spent some time shotgunning Jolt Cola and stepped over the Jim Beam for the Wild Turkey and maybe actually found some chicks to mess around in the backseat while Aerosmith's "Rocks" bleeds through a shitty casette copy of the Velvet's "White Light/White Heat" on the car's beaten up tape deck. The tape deck is really jacked. It's sticks at "I Heard Her Call My Name" so it rewinds back to the start..."Lick and a Promise" is rumblin' backwards underneath it. Recorded at Ghetto Recorders in Detroit they found a place where they could execute their plan to come in to a family's home, have dinner, play a game a game of Monopoly then HACK THEM INTO A MILLIONS PIECES. It's always those nice quiet kids who end up in the worst of headlines. When Flying Bomb released their "All American Psycho" it was told that there sessions recorded that were just too good and deserving of a higher profile label. I believe thses might be part of those...Damn! Everytime ya hink it's time to say "Blah...Estrus..." they pull off something like this. Were's the album...and WHAT IS UP WITH STYLES' HAIR? (Baseball Furies/POBOX 579/Buffalo, NY/14213/USA or Estrus)
BLOWTOPS "Blood and Tar" (Big Neck 10in.): I first heard about this band from Andy at Flying Bomb who was raving about them. He'd mention how dark and psychotic they were. I respect his opinion very much but after hearing the record he released by them I was left scratching my head. Too much Bauhaus and not enough Cramps for my treble drenched tastes. Since I was curious if I was missing something I went to see them live and was still left cold. "What the fuck?!" I'd think "He's wearing black eyeliner." Their sound was muddy but not in a Mississippi River way...I dunno...maybe more like puddle in a Walgreen's parking. It just did not move me.
A few weeks ago this comes in the mail. I hold Bart at Big Neck in the same regards as I do Andy but my face had a pained look after I pulled this record out of the envelope. "Aw man..." I put it on my turntable thinking "Well, if I play it once I can then say I heard it then I file it in the back of the pile." When the needle hit's the groove I am taken a back. It lunges out of the speakers wielding a rusty kitchen knife hoping to hit a vital artery and making the blood spill. Really !!! As where previous records by them made me wonder if the wanted to own a hearse because Herman Munster drove one for a dayjob I now think they're gunning for taking the one off the hands of the creepy old man from "Phantasm". Now if I could cope with the make-up thing....(Big Neck)
The BOONARAAAS!!! "U.G.L.Y. Girl" (Thunderwoman LP): I must be getting a sweet tooth or something. Soundin' like the Ramones lullabye'd 'em to sleep at night and they awoke every morning to The Go-Go's "Talk Show" (which is a rockin' album and the Go-Go's ARE a ROCK-n-ROLL band...I think the "Behind The Music" episode proved that I you had any doubts.) The Boonaraas have found a place in the car tape player this summer. The brightness of the hooks drag you in makin' ya think Nikki Corvette but the singing's got ya believin' that they could you drink ya under the table. How can ya not like a german chick who digs comic books and has a band that covers the Romantics "What I Like About You." (The Boonaraaas)
The BRIEFS "Hit After Hit"(Dirtnap CD): I feel like I'm back in the 10th grade. Pogoin' around in a dirty striped t-shirt and gettin' hassled by park rangers. Every wonder what happened to the kid who got hit in the head that lived down the street and would poop in the backyard...Him and his 3 geek friends hang out arguing what they would do if they were in the leading role of "Repo Man" or "Valley Girl" and having three different record players workin' so they can play the DICKIES, ALICE COOPER'S "Clones" and DEVO records at the same time. We are all unifying in that the best thing that Bob Seger could have done was to die in '72. They call for the death of him. "Kill! Die!" If you're looking for brains...ya ain't gonna find it here...but smart people music is not the dumb fun this is anyways. (Dirtnap)
The BUFF MEDWAYS "Don't Hold Me Back" (Damaged Goods 7in EP): It's Billy Childish's new combo...you should know what to expect. The a-side nods to Hendrix (that funky and I do mean FUNKY "Fire" drumbeat) as well has his own "Matchstick Girl" (the "ooh's" and "aah's" ) wadding it up in a sweaty shirt that the Downliners Sect left after a night as twice as many blue pills than usual. The flip is a smoldering number that would do either Bo diddley proud or really piss him of f (Damaged Goods)
The BUSTED LIVES "The Winner's Circle" (Blueball): There's too many weekender's around. Y'know...The guys in wife beaters and fresh tattoo's swiggin' PBR talking about when they saw Nashville Pussy who then get in their Toyota's and are home before last call. Monday morning rolls around and they put back on their necktie and figure out ways of fucking over those that work under them. There's nothing wrong with goin' out and letting the hair down but the next weekend their old lady decides she want's to go to a rave so off goes the necktie and on come the baggy pants and a shiny shirt made out of some man-made fiber. The only thing the Busted Lives might have tightened around their throat would be a noose to end the the spiral of sinking even lower into the gutter. I totally understand where this is coming from. Payday on Friday, broke by Monday morning and flirting with the barmaid in hopes that'll it score a couple of free drinks. The jukebox plays well worn copy's of Pasty's "Crazy" and "Back In Black" continuously cuz they're the best two choices on the damn thing. Hey! It ain't the most happpenest burg in the world....Ya take what you can get and plan ways of thievin' the rest. Another night in jail, another morning waking up the old lady callin' for bail. "Honey, hock anything but my guitar!" ((Blueball Records/6517 Farallon Way/Oakland, Ca/94611)
CHARM CITY SUICIDES "Green Blood" Baths Of Power 7in EP: Truly the most messed up record I've heard in a looong time. Take a 6o's garage band, have them time travel to 1977 where they are then shot into outerspace and then allow them to broadcast their songs back to earth but only through scratchy shortwave frequencies. Songs about girls take on new forms when trading the ritalin for weightlessness and little everyday simplicities that were taken for granted now are grand complexities when stuck in orbit. Even if they ever return don't expect them to give up their 10speeds and fall to the Order Of Roller Blade assholes. (Baths Of Power/48 GLEN ALPINE RD/PHOENIX, MD/21131/USA)
CLONE DEFECTS "Lizard Boy" Italy 7in EP: The lead off song "Rouge River Rebel" pretty sums these sick ones up. The Rouge River area of Detroit is best known for having the oldest, nastiest & dirtiest Ford Motor Company plant in the world. "Rust in the water/it's bad for you brain" Tim Vulgar slurs in a cheap vodka chased with Milwaukee's Best moan starting up and hittin' streets littered with burned up cars and boarded windows. The grime, the dirt and the blood. Those smokestacks filled the air for a hundred years before they were born. It's the mutations through the generations that leads to setting bread crumbs out by dumpsters wating for rats to come out and shooting them with a pellet gun for entertaiment. The product of cheeto's, backroom acid, getting backhanded and backseat blowjobs. All the retrospazz can go off about the '77 thang all day. Remember...These are defects!!! There's something seriously wrong in their heads. What a great record!!! (Italy Records/4530 Avery/Detroit Mi/48208 or Superior Sounds/512 S. Washington/PMB 279/Royal Oak Mi/48067)
COLUMBIAN NECKTIES "Scene Of The Crime" (High School Refuse 10in EP) I look at their pictures on the back and think "Oh yeah! I bet these guys get a lot of tail from rockin'" They look like tennis pro's or something...not a bunch of distortion humpin' smut hounds but looks can be decieving. My speakers scream for help as overdriven everything blares out shakin' my beer bottle off the table. They're from Aalborg, Denmark, a town where many a rock-n-roll band has left with a story (and from the one's I've been gathering probably the same girl). I should become a pharmicist and move there. Judging from the degredation this record celebrates I could become a very rich man! ( High School Refuse)
The CUTS "s/t" (Rocknroll Blitzkrieg): When we last left our Texas pals they did a record for Lookout that sounded totally outta place with what else the label offered. Locked in a room with a bunch of guys in tight corduroys and horn rimmed glasses, the Cuts we like the Lyres set for a nuclear new wave meltdown. Set free after one Ep and left to their own devices they retreated to a muddy woods where they stumbled across Sky Saxon declaring himself as their own personal Yoda. Taking what they needed and ignoring his cosmic declarations they wandered back to the bright streets. The glare made them don dark shades even at night. It seemed to match thier souls. This ain't the fake "look at my white belt" garage rock. It's dirty fuzz invented the day before psychedelic rock (The war and LSD terror...not the flowers and weed scene). Even when they sound like they wannna have a good time your waiting for someone to sneak up from behind and stick a knife in your back.
The DETROIT COBRAS "Life, Love and Leaving" (Sympathy LP): Absolutely stunning! After a couple of members left the band the future of the Detroit Cobras seemed to be none at all. Then there was word that Rachael, Mary and Damien had recruited a couple of new people and would start playing out. Some were sceptical believing that the two who exited were key members of the band and would they still be able to pull it off. With guitar player Dante Aliano and the Black Crowes keyboardist Eddie Hawrsh on bass they sure as hell did on this record. Taking obscure Soul chestnuts and giving them a stripped down yet modern Detroit take on things "Life, Love and Leaving" is gonna be a record that people are gonna still be discovering in a couple of years from now. Sending chills up the back, Rachael's voice melts the heart and kicks square in the nuts at the same time. For a basement dance party or a bedroom make out session...THIS IS THE CHOICE!!!(Sympathy)
The DIRTBOMBS "Ultraglide In Black"/The SCREWS "Shake Your Monkey" (In The Red LP's) Mick is now in the league of Guns & Roses, Bruce Springsteen and ICP. No, he's not filling stadiums (though he should), he released two albums bearing his name on the same day. The similarities stop there though. Between GnR's two "Illusion's" there was maybe one solid album, The Boss went in the toilet after "Born In the USA" and the insane clowns....well, let's just say that Mick doesn't have to act ghetto (on a side note did you know that ICP's producer Mike Clark engineered a GORIES album?). He also on up's 'em all by them being two completely different projects.
The DIRTBOMBS "Ultraglide In Black" is a tribute to the first music he enjoyed and he dedicated it to his older sister (the keeper of the Collins record collection til he came along) as well. REAL R&B! STONED SOUL! When you hear that it's has covers of Steve Wonder and Smokey Robinson songs I trust you know it ain't "Ribbon In The Sky" and "Cruisin" (Just who was Smokey trying to appeal to with writing a love ballad called "Cruisin'" in the late 70's anyways. "I Love it when we're cruisin together" He fancied wearing pink sweaters at the time too). This line-up is one the most solid yet featuring now the longest running associate Jim Diamond, returning member Pat Pantano and new recruits Bantam Rooster's Tom "Smoke" Potter and boy about town Ben Blackwell. They run like a machine. A big loud, noisy PARTY MACHINE. Anyone that was confused with "Horn Dog Fest" with it's jarring diversity will be able to put this on and have a good ole time. For years people have been waiting for Mick to do a record like this and it's well worth the wait.
I thought the SCREWS were a one-off. I wasn't really waiting around for a second. Their previous record had it's moments but after a couple of listenings it wasn't a record I reached for. When this came out I was like "Well...I gotta pick it up. It's MICK!" This is his "L.A." project that he shares with Terri of the Red Aunts. She plays some really greasy guitar noise under Mick's soulful wail. I was over at a friends house listening to this an the first 15 seconds into this he said "Well, It's already better than the first one." It's all cover tunes as well but there still not one's that would be expected in a million years. After all, who would cover a Rolling Stones song from their "Voodoo Lounge" album? Though the trash and bang level is high I'd consider this a blues record. Like the one's Fat Possom used to release before Epitaph started waving money around them to become an Americana label. This is not the white guy who plays Friday night at the brew pub kinda blues. It's the "the check my boss gave me bounced and I just wanna drink a bunch of MD 20/20 and rid the earth of you idiots" BLUES! (In The Red)
EVOLUTIONS "Primate Not Ape" 7in EP/split with the Smuts 7in Ep both Kryptonite/"Hail Fucked Up R&B" Yakisakana 7in: There's this guy who always calls on the radio show and accuses me of trying to ruin his stereo and trying to influence him to murder everytime I play something by this band. At first I thought it was this crazy guy who I used to live across the street from but then I remebered he's jail for manslaughter himself these days. Could this this be what drove him to kill? A classroom fulla elementary kids hopped up on Pixie Sticks couldn't make a noise as juvenile and racketous as this. I think all this stuff is recorded on two track cuz the rest of them blew up!! There's definately something up in Wisconsin. (Kryptonite/827 Lincoln Blvd./Manitowac, Wi/54220 )
FREDDY & the FOUR-GONE CONCLUSIONS "(You're Just A) Waste Of My Time" (Sound Camera 7in): Freddy Fortune is back this time and other nemisis of hippy rock, Professor Schmiddy, joins him to banish all Rock music post '67. Though I dig the sentiment of the a-side's "(You're Just a) Waste Of My Time" it's a little too starched collar and socks matching the suit sounding for my trashier tastes. I can't bag on them though because they do have a flair for comin' up with a hook but I'm sure they'd be deemed appropriate for Catholic High School dance. "Gotta Give It Time" is the flip and they crank up a little fuzz when the chaperones aren't looking cuz like any red blooded American boys they wanna find what them girls got underneath those plaid skirts. (The Four-Gone Conclusions)
GASOLINE "Fake Or Fame" (Estrus LP): I know this old biker and him being a long time Harley rider, whenever, for example a Honda goes down his street he'll make a comment like "It get a 100 miles to the rice patty." When Gasoline's "I Just Low " single came out I took it over to his house and said "Man! It's like biker rock" he puts it on and seems to get a kick out of it. He picks up the cover and starts looking at it.
"What's up with there names?"
"Oh, They're japanese" I tell him.
He laughs and set's the sleeve and looks me straight in the eye. "Oh! C'mon Dale... They like Cheap Trick and Iron Maiden over there but except for Loudness they're ain't been any bands from there."
"No! I'm serious."
"How can you call this biker rock? They're nips! Y'know they all drive rice burners over there?" He thinks I'm trying to pull the wool over his eyes. We drink a couple more beers and spin the record a few more times. He's still having nothing to do with it.
I was thinking about taking this over there and telling him it's a Maxium RnB record. Cuz it is. Break a sweat baby! Gasoline wants to get you up and movin'!
The Keith Moon loaded on swamp blues backbeat and a bass player who could be in a band with Godzilla for such rumblings hit below the belt while the while the blaring guitars sents a jolt up the back like stepping on a bare electrical wire. Throw your hands up, git down on the ground and lemme hear ya give a Detroit Wheels "YEEAHH!" (Estrus)
GREEN HORNET "Goin' Down" Transformed Dreams CD: Gronigen is a city in the Netherlands very dear to many a rocker's heart. The people! The famous Vera.... but not to much in bands. There have been one's that have come outta there that've done cool things but as far a totally GREAT bands that you want to listen to over and over again they can be counted on one hand. Now I have to start using my other hand. Remember the legends that the British rock-n-roll scene got sparked by American sailors comin' in to port with R-n-B records? I think the story is in Holland it was from American Rockers comin' over in the 80's and 90's and giving them something other than Focus (weren't they from Holland...Yikes!). they found the blues that way and then went backwards...The Anmals down in front at a Gibson Brothers show...and they get the bug!!! It's a tough virus to shake. Green Hornet shows all the symptons and are they hard to shake.
Bluesy and boozy. A simple r-n-b backbeat crashes into a wake and bake hi-way jam...The ride over heats and Billy Gibbons is the tow truck driver. He hands 'em keys to immortality and a bottle of sin. They get busted outside of Memphis in a city where George Jones is the High School Principal. Summer's coming up quick. I think I found my first goin' to the beach with my cooler of drinks songs of the year. (greenhornet15@hotmail.com)
The GUILTY PLEASURES "Trash Bag" Sack O' Shit 7in: What a blast of sticky raunch. Slimebag boogie decked in cuban heels slide in Darby Crash's puke after a bar brawl in a really baaad Chicago neighborhood. On the lam they hole up in a cramped and sweaty shack down Memphis way retelling their tales of excess. This is the stuff the midwest is good at. Anyone wanna hedge bets which one of these guys will be the first to kill a bum? (Sack O' Shit/PO Box 308/Kankakee, IL/60901/USA or theguiltypleasures@hotmail.com )
HENRY FIAT'S OPEN SORE "Make Your Cock Big" (RocknRoll Blitzkrieg 7in EP): An open sore? A big festering one! Like if the people next store decided to stop feeding their rottweilers so they starting taking chunks outta the kids that walked down the street for snacks. Not a clean cut to say the least. Jagged & torn and rotting pieces of meat waiting to fall off. They have distortion that modeled after the sound of an circular saw and the vocals are probably not recorded that way for lo-fi effect. It's because the singer's got the thing soaked in spit & muccous crawling with things that only the devil may know. Icki sent this to me warning that it may be "too hardcore" for my tastes. I loved hardcore until everybody started growing out their hair and thinking metal "chunka chunka" riffs wre cool. Sounds like there's no hippies here and it doesn't sound like they prefer Metallica's covers of Misfits songs over the originals. Six kicks of grossed out FUCK YOU!!!
(RocknRoll Blitzkrieg)
HIGH SCHOOL ROCKERS "Double A Side" (URU 7in EP): Well, Well, Well. They've come out of hiding. After their last record, featuring the smash "I Love Anna Kournikova", it was suggested that these german boys lay low cuz there were goons hired by Sergi Federov that wanted to have a little "talk" with them. He does not spend all that money dressing her up in black leather and diamonds like the Russian princess gone slut metal she is so he can take her to all the hot spots in Detroit just to have some snot nose brats half way across the world profess their love for her.
Not much has changed. No matter how much they show their devotion to her she still won't answer their calls. So they just get drunk and play 3 chords damage ala Supercharger with hooks as chewy as a mouth fulla Bubble Yum. (URU )
The HIVES "a.k.a Idiot " (Gearhead CD): I avoided this band for awhile. They were on Swedish label Burning Heart and were licensed to Epitaph in the US. Mall punk I figured. The claim was made that they were an over-the-top garage band. The Burning Heart/Epitaph axis had already tried to pull a fast one by claiming the same thing with International Noise Conspiracy...who were not very good. One day at work one of stoner rock guys gave this band a spin. My ears perked up "What is this?"
"The Hives. I was reading Kerrang and they were on a lot of peoples year end top ten lists."
"Yeah! I was told they were on Epitaph but don't hold that against them."
Now I understand why. Hyper trash rock with a singer who's wail pays more than resemblence to the Dirtys Screamin' Joe, the Hives are on a mission to prove there is more to Scandinavian Rock-n-Roll than reconfiguring Judas Priest riffs. Kids on a mission and ya gotta get out of their way. Untamed and hot tempered....I'm thinking I gotta get more watts of power for my stereo so I can turn it up even louder than I already play this. Their latest stuff is on Gearhead and I don't even have a Fonzie in a Mopar joke. (Gearhead)
HOT POCKETS "Mess Of Fire" (Screaming Apple LP): Adam a.k.a. Tongues exited the Spaceshits following the band's illfated U.S. tour with the Dirtys. After the Christmas holidays he caught a plane oversea's to hang with the the instigators for their European jaunt. The Dirtys tour manager was Robert of the Stipjes. The following evenings of drinkin', druggin' and letchin' eventually led the two of them to put a band togehter. They knocked a ton of songs off in a short period of time, recording them as soon as they got them down. No soul lost playing 'em over and over again...Just BAM! in a fast and loose swagger. Adam's got a groove like a kid who's only local heroes were GOWAN (isn't he from Montreal?) which just pissed him off so he took solace in listen to Chuck Berry and the Ramones almost too much (I say almost but really, what is TOO MUCH of either...I don't think there's such a thing.). There's lines of crank cut out and sitting on top of the amp heads to keep on going. Even the slower songs are mad blast groove. (Screaming Apple...singles also available on Hate and High School Reject... )
JUMPIN' BEAN and the MOUSTACHES/JUMPIN' BEAN and WILLIE various singles (Ball 7in): Drivin' down the street and notice the "slow-Children" sign. It this neighborhood it doesn't mean "Slow, Children" it means "SLOW CHILDREN". You really got to hand it to the state of Maine for having such a progressive program for it's mentally challenged. It's like an ADD experiment gone awry. Hand out some instruments teach 'em the basic rock-n-roll progression where they only pay attention to each other when the freak out section starts up. The Sonics, Chuck Berry and Bruce Springsteen are a few given the chasin' the the thorazine with MD20/20 doin' over. After one member cracked his head open after repeatingly beating it against the washing machine that can be seen in the background of one of the singles sleeves JB and Willie have continued to make their mark with some originals sounding like the Oblivians teaching at the state school for the deaf. My wife always asks me "Do you honestly like stuff like this" before she flees the room. If not for another other reason than knowing that all I have to do if I want some time alone is put one of these records on the answer would have to be yes! (Ball Records/POBox 152/Gardiner, Me/04345/USA)
Le SHOK "She Prefers Whips" Tiger Suit 7in: Now that the 80's have been VH-1-ized where everybody listened to Pat Benatar and just said no, it was only a matter of time where the stuff long thought buried in the backyard would come gurguling back up through the lawn. Should the kids in the be playing by that strange looking puddle? This is the new wave Richard Blade never talked about. Snorting No-Doz burns...run out? Try Anacin. It's got a high caffiene count and it stings even more. Just like the sensation here! (Le Shok Secret Service/PO BOX 15645/Long Beach, Ca/90815 or www.leshok.com )
LOST SOUNDS "Memphis Is Dead" (Big Neck CD) New Wave. Not in the bright & colorful "let's put on leg warmers, drink Tab and go to the mall" way but the brooding "Welcome to the spooky side of my mind" thing. Like the Stranglers. "IV" to be exact. Korg monopolys blurting around obnoxious fuzz and maybe a backhanded compliement to early Cabaret Voltaire getting vertigo at a surf show. Everyone is flipping out about Jay Reatard being in the band but just as much credit has to go to Alicja. She was once in a band called the Clears. They were a true New Wave package. She knows her way around this stuff (and probably played Jay The Stranglers "IV" album cuz he had never heard it before) and gets her fair chunk of the spotlight. Break out the black lipstick. Yeah! The mall in this cowtown now has a Hot Topic! Woo-Hoo! The goof in the Billy Idol t-shirt that works there would not "get" this. Being a teenager in the 80's kids got there asses kicked by roving gangs of rocker rednecks in brown Frye boots for looking half as weird as that guy (I felt revenge was had when Rob Halford officially annouced that he was gay. The guy that had the locker next to me got pounded once for telling that to someone)This is the sound of all the suckerpunched by the Galaga game kids getting together in one room and planning an action to kill. (Big Neck They also have a single on Empty)
MIDNIGHT EVILS "Ain't Got Time For Love" & "Powerhead" (both DART 7in.): Sitting at the stop sign at one thirty in the morning, revvin' up the motor with open headers rumblin', hit that bitch and burn rubber for two straight blocks. Cruise through downtown and get all paranoid about every set of headlights in the rearview. "Shit! Cops!" is shouted but the buddies in the back seat just want the cassette turned up cuz the Nuge's "Scream Dream" is on next. Find a couple of skanky chicks driving the main drag, get 'em to spend all their money on Busch, Marlboro's and Grape Pucker, take 'em out to the Cemetary to fingerbang 'em. I just read that after the 2002 model year GM will suspend production on the Camaro and Firebird. First the Plymouth, then Oldsmobile... When will it stop? I just can't imagine music like this being made by scumballs driving SUV's. Blues for the factory rat. (Dart Records)
THE MULLENS "Tough To Tell" (Get Hip CD) Previous records by this band left me unimpressed but I got to see 'em live in Chicago at the BLACKOUT and my opinion has been swayed. Live they were like pre-valium Tommy James and the Shondells with less silly shirts (though a couple of them look like they raided Greg Brady's closet) and more than an idea of who the Dictators are. The CD tells the same story not in superglossed proportions but not in dirty lo-fi either. Hey! I guess that would be mid-fi. If it was '79 these guys would be opening for Cheap Trick and blowing the kids of Japan away. "Shady Deal" is the best partyin' on the road song since Grand Funk's "We're An American Band" just cuz I know the exact corner they're talking about in Detroit. One thing though...I would of gladly socked whichever Mullen it was who crashed out on the couch and snored like a buzzsaw limiting those of us late to bed to even less sleep. (Get Hip)
NAZIS FROM MARS "Cosmic Beat" and "Tina Techno Punk Teen" (Astral Anarchy both 7in) I'm tellin ya. There's gonna be a big new wave resurgence. I know saying that will piss this dutch band off. They prefer to call it "techno punk". Working in a place that makes a third of it's profits off the electronica thing the name comes with a stigma for me. The bubble heads and jocks that used to see Pat Benatar and Ratt have been replaced by ravers. There's the also side of the coin where it could be an Atari Teenage Riot idea...they do seem to have a genuine hatred for the status quo but as where ATR sounded like the just wanted to take chainsaws to the place before blowing it up with a rocket launcer, the Nazis would like to stop to have a couple of drinks first. A spastic drum machine rattles while the presets of a cheap keyboard that are dipped heavily in pink noise blip and bleep in tandem with guitar fuzz that would do the Sonics proud. Vanya's monotonic vocals are sexy in a eerie Nico kinda way (that is if Nico ever wanted to be Joey Ramone). I'm sure alot of people won't get it and other's will treat it as a pariah. "Techno and Punk?! Not in MY record collection!!" The debate rages on if keyboards belong in punk...This is more PUNK ROCK than anything they're selling down at the mall. (Astral Anarchy Vanya also does a zine called No Brains)
PART-TIME POSERS "Born To Pose" (New Lifeshark CDEP): After Scandanavian Glam-punk band Chinese Takeaway split up last year front members singer Katti and guitar player/vox Ego T. Superstar traded in the torn fishnets for a pair of black leather boots. The scuzz of Smack still leaves it's infection but the boogie rock has been drowned with pints of beer swiped from the Damned's bar. Booze is used to ease the pain but it just doesn't work...it's just makes 'em more fed up with the up-tight's that live around them. Old lady's will laugh and stare at a 3 foot high mohawk but will go to the other side of the street is they see a bunch of people in leather jackets walking in their direction. The Part Time Posers alway have a clear path on the sidewalk. (New Lifeshark)
PITS "Introducing My New High" (Rapid Pulse 7in.): I'm not really up on my British punk stuff. I know the standards but if someone wanted to discuss specific albums by the Business or something you'd see me mostly with a "duh" look on my face and doing a bunch of head nodding. With that said this record got me wondering. It's artwork reminds me of a 999 record or something. Nothing glaring (The packaging is quite simple) but it does have a certain look to it. It even has the British copyright warning on the back sleeve. Is it a reissue? If so the band must have decided to use a newer picture of themselves because if these guys looked that old back then they're probably dead by now. When I put the record on I'm still wondering. The singer rolls his r's and sings words like "cash" in a biting whine. The band is more '79 than '77 throwing in a powerpopped raise you pint sing along. The only thing that really comes to mind is Cocksparrer. I'm enjoying it but what's the deal with it? I should've checked out their website...Damn bong hits. (Rapid Pulse)
RESINATORS "Way Gone" Dart 7in: This is the type of band that I wish was in my neighborhood. Now, I'm not a band laying around town. I'm talking about some guys a block over, down in the basement cranking up the sound for a reason to drink some beer. Everybody hanging out getting loaded and jammin' the ROCK!!! Bring over some PBR and your down, baby. Good ole dumbass, dirthead Rock-n-Roll!!! (Dart Records or 1539 Aloha Rd/Dahinda, Il/61428)
RICHIE WHITES "Stop Me Before I Kill Again" Rapid Pulse 7in: Being that there's former Motards and Bulemics in this band I figured the sleaze factor meter would be buried in the red but there's a pop hook underneath the crud. Not "pop" as hoping to get the gig opening for Blink 182 but POP as in the BOYS. Now, that's a tall order...this record doesn't achieve that level of almost perfectness but it is something to strive for. Maybe that's the lure to get us all in...TO KILL US!!! I'm looking foward to hearing more. (Rapid Pulse c/o Underground Medicine)
ROCK and ROLL ADVENTURE KIDS - (Soul Not Style 7in): Really lo-fi...The guy with the early 90's walkman standing somewhere in the middle of the crowd. Him and his friends can be heard grumblin' under the mess goin' on up onstage. Someone turn the dumb meter up full blast for this one! Four dumb songs (the same on both sides) that make the Mummies seem hi-brow. This record was really cheap! I guess that's what they call truth in advertising. (RockandRollAdventureKids)
ROCKET 455 "Go To Hell" (Get Hip CD): Rocket are a Detroit institution. Before the city really started happening again in the late 90's they were the relief from crossover hardcore and 3rd rate grunge bands. Just 5 regular guys with nothing to prove but proving it anyway. Dumb rock-n-roll hooks that guarenteed plenty of beers spilled and plenty more bought. Though they went through several line-up changes (Gories Dan Kroha and Ramrods Bob Mulrooney among the ranks) guitar player Jeff Meier and singer Marc Walz kept the motor running through several singles on labels like Human Fly and Italy and a ten inch on Get Hip. This collects them all on one shiny little disc. They've been remixed for pure a Motorcity gunshot blast that almost matches the pummelling they'd give on a really hot night. Though they called it a day in 2000 they can't resist firing out the engine every once in a while. Their like the Who in that respect...They just can't stay away for too long. Unlike the Who though, they haven't embarrassed themselves. (Get Hip)
SCAT RAG BOOSTERS "I'm Comin' On" (Yakisakana 7in EP) Man! The first time I heard this Montreal band a couple of years ago I was hooked. Railroad rhythm bashing of the blues at a meth party. Just flat out wailin' and stompin' riled up and volatile. Hell, Tim Warren considered putting a record out by them but he had already put his no moderne band policy into effect and they even recieved high praise by none other than Mick Collins. You'd think such accolades would have been enough to garner interest but nobody was biting. A demo fell into my hands after the Spaceshits passed my address to them. They DID have a sound that could have written another chapter in Crypt's book but their copy must've had some pages missing. Instead on a repititous pummeling that some of the labels superstars would be know for the Boosters threw in rhytmic twists that would fit in more with The Famous Flames. I booked 'em a few American shows (including one here in Port Huron at a neighborhood that doesn't usually have live music with a band in was in opening) and after seeing them live I yacked even more to everybody about 'em. Flying Bomb was the first to step up to plate. They night the band was scheduled to come back to Detroit to master the tapes guitar player/singer Serge was denied entry to the states for having a police record. His henious crime? Siphoning gas outta a car when he was 15. Yeah! Customs really prevented a criminal from entering the country that night. Remaining Boosters, Eddie and Martin came over to do the job. I have never met Martin, he couldn't (or wouldn't ) come to the states when they here played previously. A fill in gutairist (Yes, they were a basless trio) was taken out on the road. No big deal...Serge's songs killed so not much else mattered. When the record came out I started scratching my head. There was only one song I recognized from their demos...and I had no idea who was singing on the other two. The same with the single that came with an issue of of French zine "Arse Plot." Serge told me that Martin decided that his songs belonged on those records but wait until the upcoming singles (they weren't bad or anything but I was like "Who's the fuckin' new singer?") I haven't gotten my copy of the one of Savage yet but I did notice that Martin is only credited as playing guitar here. This is Serge's voice. The songs burn! A soul ripped out, soaked in gasoline then thrown on to barbeque to it's right degree of burntness. (Yakisakana)
LES SEXAREENOS "Can You Do The Nose Moustache" (Telstar 7in EP): For those who may not be familiar with their sound Les Sexareenos play Six-oh based Farfisa tinged RnB (Like Don Covay did...not the way R. Kelly do). Being fans of a good song they are not purists. The 70's blast of the Ramones to the loose rawness of Crypt records heyday in the mid 90's all factor into the sound that they stumbled across making their debut LP "Live! In The Bed" be one of my top 5 favorites from last year. Having played both thr Las Vegas Grind and Cavestomp the band has found fans in some of the more "uppercrust" garage types (Y'know the one's on bomplist that go into a long diatribe about the fuzz was created on "Psychotic Reaction" was real compared to the phony garage bands of today then will gush about some lackluster band like the Embrooks). The strange part is that it seems those types get off on seeing guys almost 40 years past their "career" or bands tryng to act younger than they are and wearing striped slacks or a nutty pirates coustume or something. Les Sexareeno don't have that gimmick. Hell, I've witnessed Choyce walk around in a pair of jeans with the ass and crotch seams totally torn out for like 4 days straight. It's not about imitating or posturing or "Hey! Check out this retro amp I got...Yeah! It's not really loud and fucks up a lot but it looks soo cool."
This record captures the band at a return trip to Mr Jim Diamond's place and with a stop in Seattle to record with the Sonics producer Kearney Barton. There's a party to be had. Somebody open the windows cuz it's gettin' hot in here. I gonna unbutton my shirt, grab my girl AND DANCE! (Telstar/POBox 1123/Hoboken,NJ/07030)
LES SEXAREENOS "Out To Sea" (Sympathy 7in EP) They went out and bought the Love Boat. Changin' it's name to the Lust Boat (cuz lust is always hotter!) They tore up the Lido Deck and threw it overboard to make room for a roller rink. Join Colonel "Gopher" Lingus, your cruise director Annie, Choyce behind the bar and Captain (because he's got the hat) Blortz a trip where it's always 3 girls for every boy, Bridgette Bardot hasn't aged a minute as she host's a game of naked Twister and Les Sexareenos can be seen three times daily followed by Choyce's intoxicant of the day ("It's all in the alcohol" says the brochure). I'm sellin' my house and goin' on a year long cruise (Sympathy)
The SHRINKS "Nowhere To Live" (Rapid Pulse 7in EP): It's not uncommon to hear discussions of the punk rock "schools". New school, old school. Punk rock ain't about school. Fuck school with it's jocks in their nice cars and stupid cheerleader girlfriends. All those rules and the teachers are a bore. Punk rock is about dropping out of school getting kicked out of the house and finding some other likeminded rejects to hang around with. The more the merrier cuz there's then more to contribute to the cheap beer fund. Like any dropouts the Shrinks but take the "more" side of the quantity vs. quality issue down at the liquor store. And that's what you're supposed to do when ya got all day with nothin' to do but to get fucked with. Landlords, the assholes next door and a crazy bitch called girlfriend. (Rapid Pulse)
STRONG COME ONS-"Trailer Sessions" demo: I saw WIRE when they reformed and did the tour for the "Ideal Copy" album . Since they had a different sound from their earlier days (drum machines vs. ratty guitars) I had doubts that they would even do stuff from "Pink Flag" or "154". Well, they didn't. The opening band was called "Ex Lion Tamer" (a name taken from a song off "Pink Flag") and it was their job to play that stuff and they did it to a tee.
Now let's say the OBLIVIANS got back together a did an album that embraced the "dj culture". They could call on these guys for the opening slot. They even took their name from a song off the classic (and I mean CLASSIC) "Popular Favorites". They throw some of that Wisconsin blood and guts "Yeeeeaaahhhhrrrggg" all over everything and make it their own (this ain't some Blonde Redhead/Sonic Youth style ripoff) . No doubt this was recorded in trailer. One with antlers nailed all over the walls. Vactioning in the Dells must really mess with some young minds. Contact buczek@itol.com )
STUPORSTARS "Poison Arrow" (- Pelado 7in EP): The band features Stallions singer and smut lord Rick Hall. The Stallions toured in support of a constantly delayed album only to return to NYC to find out that it had been delayed again. Frustration dealt it's hand and the band broke up. Rick was then offered a high flalutin' job by Larry Flynt and caught the next plane to Hollywood. I'd think the 24 hour parade of pink and snortin' blow outta $200 a table dance exotic dancers g-strings would be enough for anyone to combat any itch but there was something he just couldn't scratch. He knew that he had to get back out there and rock. He won't just settle for any jizzmoke with a Marshall though. Rick can sit and listen to GG Allin, Jerry McCain and George Jones all in a row. He didn't want self proclaimed punk rockers...He needed rockers who understood the essence of "punk." Not the shit that is set down in stone but the love of turning in up and giving it all ya got. People who wouldn't wince at throwing in a "Yah! Yah! Baby!" and and getting the crowd to dance. Shit! In L.A. that's rare. Everybody out there is watching and wondering if they're suppose to like the band on stage. The bands are wondering if they should incorporate a dj so MTV will show up. The Stuporstars don't give a fuck about shit like that. I wanna dance, drink and sing along. Songs that'll get stuck in your head like the Rezillos do. And if your too cool for that then get lost. (Pelado or the Stuporstars)
SUPERHELICOPTER "Rocknroll Damnation" 10in/"Destroy" 7in EP both on Manuel Wastl: I first heard this band a couple of years ago and ever since they've been wrecking me good. Everything is so pushed in the red that it bleeds profusely. The walls, the speakers, the windows...all spattered in blood. Mix that with the exhaust fumes of a '72 Plymouth Fury and some adreneline and it's one volitile cocktail. Every song starts either with guitar feedback readying up to slice throats, a drum beat that can snap neck or singers Nil's screamed raw voice shouting "ALRIGHT!" This is a true testimonial. Bow down to all that is dangerous. These germans attack so surprising quick no one is left standing. Bodies of all the squares in town litter the streets with their cold stiff hands still covering their ears. Why do asshole teens listen to KORN and think it's so hardcore when there's stuff as honestly nasty as this? (Manuel Wastl)
SUPERHELICOPTER "Rejected #6" (7in EP)/"Twisted Baby"(7in) (both High School Reject/ Refuse ) Though the band is no more, SUPERHELICOPTER has not gone out with a whimper. A full-on attack of of brain searing hiss diving into a building on fire is more their style. Rejected's "Dandy Fuck" starts off the bloodshed with a love song with the most sadistic of coo's and it's follow up "Self Control" just feeds the demon with more sickness. It's flip "Rejected At The High School Dance" is a pre-Chesterfield King's Greg Prevost penned number and these North Germans make it sound like if Pussy Galore decided to worship the Monkees and called the Nuge up to jam some solo's over it. Of course Ted calls them a bunch of noisy fags but not before he leaves a rotting bear carcass behind.
"Twisted Baby" is a field day for shrinks. Who is Nil's making his lungs all bloody screamin' about while the band kicks boogie rock to a lifeless corpse? Is it just himself or is he gonna take some down with him and just how many? They had to break up before someone got fatally hurt. The cops refused to show up after word got out that ax blades where getting sharpened. By the times the b-sides "Got You Baby" has finished the news crews are already there getting quotes from the neighbors.
Nil's has got out alive. He's now front's a "kick drum band" called the Shakin' Nasties and is taking a Good Time vibes to a deep and dirty pit of nastyness. Hopefully a record comin' soon cuz I've just about worn out the tape I was sent of it. (High School Reject/Refuse)
TEXAS MOTHERFUCKERS "Paingiver" Motherfuckin' Records 7in.: Everything is big in Texas!!! Texas,Sweden that is. One big jones for Motorcity Rock, a big appetite for eating gravel for breakfast. and a big ass ole American car to drive around a terrorize girls in school uniforms with. (motherfuxxers@hotmail.com)
The TRAILER PARK TORNADOS "Heroes Of The Hopeless" (Big Neck 7in EP): Buffalo is not a cheerful town and who can blame them. First off it snows more in a month than it does the whole year where I live in southeastern Michigan (and trust me...it's snows quite a bit here.) Then there's it's most famous former residents Rick James and OJ Simpson. Yeah! There's two good role models for ya, huh? Let's also not forget that the "ladies" are also rarely seen at the Rock-n-Roll shows there. Shit! It gives anyone a reason to be pissed off and do the Trailer Park Tornados sound flat out full of rage. Mean and nasty and lashing out at anyone that get's within the rach of their clutches. This record is LOUD. Close your eyes and you can see the singer's veins bulging to the point where they might bust as he howls about heroin and Canoli girls over a huge bog of vermin infested distortion. The doctors specializing in hearing problems probably make a killing the day after these guys and fellow locals the Baseball Furies play a show together as the bartenders curses them to the lowest hell while picking up broken glass and scrubbing bloodstains off the stage. (Big Neck)
LES VIPERES/SUX EVULSORS "Stereophucking" split single (SDZ Records 7in EP): Who are more fun to make of than the canadians? why it's the french of course. So why is it that bands with a french-canadian connection come out (somewhat) unscathed here at Smashin' Transistors? I dunno...maybe it's from them getting ragged on so much that they try a little harder cuz they got something to prove.
Quebec City Canada's Les Viperes pull off decent 70's style punk rockin' action. They more than likely get the crowd up and and shakin' there asses...They sing in French. The Sux Evulsors are from Nancy, France and do the Teengenerate thing. They get an B+ for effort. They sing in English. Neither band is doing anything new but given time at least Les Viperes might find something new to do with it. (SDZ)
Z/28 "Another Fine Day" (demo): They can't make a proper hamburger in the U.K. That's why they don't breed many balls out Rock-n-Roll bands. C'mon...Name one band from the past five years that kicked your ass. Maybe the X-RAYS...I'm lost. I believe that Z/28 are really Americans. Heavy duty Lazy Cowgirls twang bangs about bad lovin', hard drinkin' and fast drivin'. The next wave of Camaro Hillbilly Punk Rock is coming outta England? They drive on the other side of the road there. Camaro dudes here in the USA do that too but it's usually cuz they're drunk. It's gotta suck to live in the UK right now...They make the best of it by squealin' the racing slicks and runnin' down fag dj types. I'd probably still have to go over there to show them how to really party but this goes good with a case of Blatz (Z/28)
SMASHIN' TRANSISTORS
(i.e. What to do when your bored, living in Port Huron and listening to punk rock records)
Here's our reviews from 3-01 to 6-01 in a condensed versionxt.
