THE ATOM SMASHERS "Alright" (Rip Off 7in) Yep! That's about it. Just alright. Nothing really special...I know it's just punk rock and all. I don't expect something innovated but this sounds really contrived and dull. They are from Italy, a country that has many a band that suffers from the same problem. At least they aren't, at least obviously, copying the Ramones but this ain't doing much for me at all. Maybe if they were really "from Japan" like they want everybody to believe they'd probably be a lot better. Japanese bands are usually supercrazy...This band would get killed if they got in the way
The AUDREYS (demo) Perpetual nervousness. Little ticks. Tiny explosions. Sorta like the Feelies with a self-effacing stutter in their shimmer, Chicago Audreys harke back to the indie rock salad days when "college radio bands" were considered a style of music (and they do it decently.) Some Modern Lovers nerdiness along with the shuffle they nicked from the Velvets, bits of Byrdsy jangle and a droplet of LSD is balled up, stuffed into a soda bottle and then left in a stoned family room to incubate.
THE BAD TIMES s/t (Goner/Therapeutic LP) Eric fuckin' Oblivian, Jay fuckin' Reatard and King fuckin' Louie!!! One practice, one recording session and one show. A supergroup match made south of Heaven. I'm sure most of you know what you're getting into but lately I've been recieving e-mails from folks looking to correspond with other "Garage Rock People" and then asking why Smashin' Transistors doesn't have any articles on the Strokes and International Noise Conspiracy. Sure, they might dig those bands for their quiant sounds but this would send them running back to the Radiohead collection they procured last year for shelter. With the volume maxed this is like a weekend bender where all that is remember through the blackout is that everything was turned up louder than it would go. The scorched speakers and piles of melted 45's in the middle of the room will have to go unexplained as will the cuts and bruises
THE BLUEBALLS "Is An Afflction..." + others/THE KNOCKERS -demo-/ (Pleasure Unit cassette) It's reassuring that in these days of MP3's, CD-R's and digital recording equipment that there is still a tape culture out there. At one time and place tape culture flourished where weirdos from Spain to Texas to Norway to Japan to England to Germany could trade their cheap ass recordings of their Industrial Folk Hymns or Anarchist Country & Western and so on. Career intentions where not a priority concern (though some have developed cult status through the years) it was more like having messed up pen-pal's from around the world sharing a common interest even if it was "what kind of boombox did you use to record that on."
The head behind Pleasure Unit Recordings is Casey who lives in Algoma, Wisconsin. It's a small town of 3000 people a half hour drive from Green Bay. For a place so small and secluded it , at first, seems strange that it has 3 punk rock bands. The most well known of the lot are the Strong Come Ons. Both the Knockers and the Blue Balls carry a holy hell of a fucked up amp guitar distortion approximated from the Strong Come Ons. At first, I'm thinking "Wow! Even if only a scant handful of ever hear them, at least Casey and the boys influenced the next generation of rockers in their town." Then I'm wondering that since Algoma is a fishermen's paradise, ("When is the "best time" to fish? Anytime you can get away" as one charter boat captain put it) maybe it's from eating all that fish. It's like there's something in the water that grows those coho's and chinooks so big (Algoma is a salmon haven to boot). Maybe it's all those toxins that led to warnings say "DON'T EAT MORE THAN 1 FISH PER WEEK CAUGHT IN AREA WATERS". The BLUEBALLS catalog consists of 11 (according to Strong Come Ons Nick G number 12 is finished and "it's the best one yet...because I'm playing on it") punk rock album length (meaning about a half hour if each if your lucky) recorded over the past year. The three that Casey landed on me during his last visit to Michigan find them causing malicious destruction to power-pop, hair-metal, straight edge hardcore, college rock while the Angry Samoans hold up score cards and everything else in between. Recorded in a fidelity that makes Supercharger sound like Jeff Lynne productions in comparison, the gist of the band is to have it's members remain nameless so they can rant and rag on whatever shit bringing 'em down. So much steam to blow off it's boiling over.
The Knockers share the same ethic as the Blueballs when it come's desperate for a piece of tail and blown speaker fidelity but have a more consistant style reminding me lot of the Hookers first single (before they went metal) or the BOYS fighting with Killdozer over the last piece of steak...Eventually someone's gonna pick up and throw a gas grill.
The BUSTED LIVES "One Flap Down" (Blueball) A lot of the songs here about sports. The first song is titled "Mark Chmura Rock-n-Roller." They sound really loaded! There's a song on here called "Drinking Like An Oakland Raider" too. Here are the four drunks in the stands yelling at passerby's, picking fights and getting kicked out. There they are in the bar, it's their social club. They watch the end of the game on the TV...Then they get kicked out. They all head over to one of their apartments cluttered with Stroh's cans, tattered skin mags, pizza boxes and sports memorabilia. Records by the New Bombs Turks, the Dictators, Gas Huffer and the Cynics lay outside their sleeves, scattered all around the record player. The hometown teams blows the game and these guys wallow in the "loser" stature by heading down to the corner and scoring another case of swagged out brew. They come back and get all loud til they pass out! Tomorrow's another day and they got digital cable Yep! They may have piece of shit cars that are uninsured and get sloshed in dives frequented by toothless old ladies who'll "set your dick in fire for $5" but they don't ever miss a game because that gives them excuse to live another day
THE CARBONAS s/t (demo CDR) I wonder if the Devil still ever needs to go down to Georgia. I know he lost that fiddle of gold to that Johnny kid but I can't see him letting the whole market slip through his fingers. Then again, after he pulled the bow across the strings to make an evil hiss, a band of demons did join in. Maybe these were them guys. It sounds like they live in a firey pit of trash where the Motards stoke the flame and motor oil instead of blood drips from the ceiling. Satan looks a lot like Link Wray on a six week bender of tequlia down in Tijuana if this is the case. He appears every week or so just to make sure he's got his wrath spread around then he does some evil shit like raise the rent again. Even if The Carbonas tried to find new digs it wouldn't really matter. The nightmares, bleeding ulcers and getting kicked out of good parties is the FUN stuff down there. Hell I mean...not Georgia...but then again.... (The Carbonas)
CLONE DEFECTS "Blood On Jupiter (Tom Perkins CD) According to Roman mythology Jupiter was the King of all Gods. He ruled the skies. One of his big tricks was that he could get all business to cease for the remainder of the day just by sending forth thunder. In Gustav Holst's "The Planets Suite" The Jupiter part is known as the "Bringer Of Jollity." The planet itself is twice as massive as all the other planets combined. It has red spots (the blood maybe???) which are attibuted to colder high pressure zones. All of these points must be taken into consideration when listening to the debut LP by these Detroit malcontents.
In the face of adversity the Clone Defects overcame obstacles like junior high schools where the most useful thing you learned how to get loaded in the restroom without getting busted while waiting for the young miss student teacher to walk by.
Pretty girls in heat come in from the other side of the freeway ready to open their claws. The whiskey stinkin' carvorting and grind that the Clone Defects do with a rare ease seems so exotic to 'em. Alcohol being problematic and sliding from job to job, apartment to apartment and bar to bar is just like how it was in the books to the young lasses. Homemade t-shirts, stolen jean jackets and deep jagged scars are something daddy would never approve of. They can get the effect of slumming it and have the rock-n-roll too. Eventually it get's to be too much. It's every night! The claws are as deep as they can get and the Defects rip themselves free. Then the Mr. Hyde comes out!!!
Starting off with a timpani drum courtesy of Ryan Paik they crash into the stereo with a Heartbreakers with a Rip-Off Records sting of the title track and follow it with "Whiskey and Women", a Mick Ronson stagger stumblin' across the Rolling Stones lawn looking for some acid that the Electric Eels thought they dropped. "Thought" is the word cuz you you think you can pin in down but no one knows where it's truly coming from. One might think they can name the exact point where the band's genetic experiment went awry but there's so many unknow indentified virus' in the make-up where nothing is uniform. Chuck Fogg, Tim Vulgar, Wild Mid Wes and Fast Eddie make their own then turn against it. It ain't pretty. Unemployed families upbringing in the rustbelt with the opprotunities dwindling at even a faster rate than when one was raised make em stronger if they don't perish.
I'm thinking back to a few years ago when Tim became a fixture at shows. He'd always be out front of the club waiting for someone from one of the bands to walk by so he could tell them how he was broke and just wants to check out the show. It was sincere. He never had any cash and would nurse a glass of soda all night. Later, he shared the fact with me that he always carries a flask. Telling us all about the Clone Defects...When they finally debuted everyone came out and they pulled it off. A couple of months later he's handing out their first 45. Some of them didn't have paper sleeves. "Cash is tight." I couldn't tell if it was serious or not. That record, "Cheetah Eyes/Bottled Woman", sounded like nothing else around but had action everyone could identfy with. Yeah!!! He's the one always standing in front of the stage at shows getting all wild and cutting a rug. Shit! He got awarded one evening down in Columbus, Ohio for his prowess with the dancesteps. To him, shit like that is important...AND IT SHOULD BE! So many bands currently working outta a '77 Midwest framework seem to be more concerned with the type of shoes they're wearing than how to move those feet. It don't mean a thing without that swing and all the studded leather wristbands in the world don't make any difference. The Clone Defects are bringers of jollity on dingy and dark streets. The Clone Defects are a real deal. (Superior Sounds/512 S. Washington/PMB 279/Royal Oak Mi/48067)
COLUMBIAN NECKTIES "Rejected #7" (High School Reject 7in) These guys like everything big! Big guitar riffs, chicks with big boobs, big thick pieces of steak, big ass old cars. Here they let you all know that. hey hit you over the head with it on the a-sides "Tommy" (which, I don't think has anything to do with the rock opera...but they are from Denmark..and former Shake Appeal...so who really knows. I think the Danish would really be into the WHO). The b-side is a fight in the gymasium take of "Rejected At the High School Dance" but I'm sure some readers might have already know that. All High School "Reject" releases require that song to be on the label, it's sister label, High School Refuse, doesn't. Pick slides should only be used under the strictest of supervision. (HSR)
THE DAMNATION KIDS "The Fucker" (High School Refuse 7in) More sonic meltdown courtesy of the SUPERHELICOPTER RECORDER...It may be Nils Superhelicopter incognito as a one man band (cuz the pics of Joe, Jim and John look like the same person) or he stumbled across three inbred brothers while stomping out in the deep German woods , loaned them some power supplyand taught them his brand on lug-nuts in a blender rhythm rock and roll.
THE DIXIE BUZZARDS "The Beat" (Yakisakan 7in EP) Jeez!!! Start talking about KING LOUIE and look what happens. Not only has he been from Coast to Coast he's taken his gospel across the world and it touched these Swede's deeply. A-side's "The Beat" is ALL about King Louie. When I say this I don't mean "Oh! This song reminds me of the Persuaders" I mean IT'S ABOUT HIM done up in a two left (pigs) feet rhythm. They even mention Burger joints and pawn shops. They've studied him well. The flipside shows why there's finds them pleading for "The Touch Of A Woman's Hand". I mean down on the knees beggin' "Please! Please!" and employin' a sax player who sounds like he was last seen after being chased outta town for commiting immoral acts. The last song plays an obvious nod to "Hidden Charms" and a not so obvious ones to Jump Blues call and responses and AC/DC.
THE ELECTRIC EELS "The Eyeball Of Hell" (Scat LP) I'm sure there's some who would consider this a great "room clearing" release but in my basement it doesn't work that way. I want my friends to experience to overdriven uglyness of it all. The volume knob is cranked all the way up as I stomp my foot to retarded thud of "Jaguar Ride" playing air guitar to it's chug, slurring something like "This is the greatest song of all times."
Formed in '72 these Ohio fuck-up's were doomed from the start. A sleezy frontman filled with pathos and catholic guilt gifted/cursed with a bitter "Nyah nyah nyah" voice riddled with cynicism and cluelessness. The guitar player was a fat kid from around town with bleached blonde hair. He was asked to play because he had a guitar. Big open chords slashed in a hypnotic repetition tested the nerves of everyone around. Having a partyline concerning "practical nihilism" and heavily influenced by Ornette Coleman, the Stooges, Sun Ra and really cheap regional brews, they left everyone scratching their heads if not more intense displays of disapproval. Even after they ditched Cleveland for what they thought was a more liberal Columbus, they were arrested after their first gig there and the guitar player getting beaten by the cops. The drummer Nick Knox later left to join the Cramps.
"Eyeball of Hell" replaces the now outta print "God Says Fuck You" that AmRep did years back adding 13 unreleased tracks and six alternate tracks. I have the Lp version which also 3 songs not on the CD. It's a double album packaged in a gatefold with full liner notes and thick collector geek vinyl. Their brain damaged squalls and screams played a heavy influence on current midwest weirdo punk like the Piranhas and the Clone Defects so you know freak factor runs really high. Amazing stuff.
ESTEE LOUDER "Screamin' Sum Voodoo" (Burnt Herd 7in EP) You've got 3 rockin' chicks and a singer who sports a Mr. Kotter afro. They have a sludgy HARD ROCK/PUNK sound recorded in that mid 70's, mid-fi sound. What they should do is keep away from the Dwarves covers (it's a mighty task to do them justice...The only one's I've every seen do it were the Mud City Manglers take on "Saturday Night" and it's a cover of a cover) and do more songs like "Girl I See You." It's a sad drunken cowtown stumble from bar to bar that the singer sounds to know all to well. The off-harmony femme back-ups add to it's booziness.
THE FLASH EXPRESS "Who Stole The Soul" (Revenge 7in) "Who stole the soul?!" It's a question that get's asked everyday. It's also a question, in these days of gutless and pro-tooled "ROCK" bands that make JOURNEY seem funky and having the imagination that of a Karaoke bar host like Puff Daddy get's declared a musical genius, it's (hopefully) being asked by more and more people each day. From Hollywood, Ca. the Flash Express don't politely ask. They scream it at their top of their lungs. High on the MC5, they do their own searchin.' Live, I hear, it's like they bust out a big ole backhoe and make a big mess. That only somewhat translates here but they do hold the distinction of being the first band I've heard to do a Gino Parks cover. It's not even one of the one's I know by him. For those who don't know, Gino Parks was a Detroit soul singer who got into the Mowtown fray where he recored for their Tamla and Soul subsidiaries as well as some stuff for Fortune and Golden World. He never hit the big time but is considered a legend in Northern Soul circles. Jimmy Hole guests on this. He's the bass player on the Screws "Shake Your Monkey" album. The Screws are Mick Collins' L.A. project. It's all a tangled web. Who stole the soul? These guys do a commendable sermon trying to find out.
GASOLINE "Take It To The People" (Estrus CD) Man!!! Gasoline always whip out a big ninja kick and knock around my brain. Raw soul burning in an electrical explosion of lava spewing guitar screech as the rhythm section rumbles like Entwhistle & Moon trying to harness it all before everyone gets killed...It all begins to glow in a brilliant fireball setting everything aflame. Then "pop-pop" the drummer hit's the beat, the bass player follows suit and next of one of the 5 best guitar solos of the past 10 years (I should publish that list one of these days). The thing about japanese bands is that they take their rock and roll seriously. They're very intense about showing it respect and taking it to it's peakest levels. Someone told me that Gasoline take naps before they play and added "That's not very Rock-n-Roll."
THE HELL IT AIN'T!!! Then they are well rested for the battle! It's a serious mission!!! You've gotta be aware! YOU HAVE GOT TO BE UP!!! Anything less is less dammit and Gasoline keep striving for MORE, MORE, MORE! This is everything one expects from them and for those who haven't had a chance to hear them yet the CD version of "Take It Too The People" is a good place to start cuz it includes their Estrus debut EP "I Just Low" as well. That was my starting point with 'em and my need for their speed hasn't waned since.
THE GLORY HOLES "Screamer" (Dirtnap 7in) Former Sinister Six voxman Doug fronts up this group. Here he whips his hayseed hop-head belting over scratchy guitar punk that pays more nod to the American po' white boys buzz that backwater towns spawned in the 70's than his former band's Kinks on crank violent episodes. (Dirtnap)
The GREEN MONSTERS "Aiming Low" (Fake 7in EP) After listening to the BAD TIMES record pretty much endlessly the past few day I wonder if I sizzled off some of my hearing. There's even fuzz on the drums! These Montreal trashmasters broke up even before this record saw the light of day. Maybe they knew that once they learned to actually play they could never match the glorious ineptness that happened here
The HOT POCKETS "Kiss 'N Run" (Alien Snatch LP) German label Alien Snatch is quickly becoming one of my favorite company's. They've not only put some good records but it's the whole way they present it. Brick think vinyl pressings, bright and colorful package. This LP even includes a booklet...but you DO need one to document what "Kiss 'n Run" is all about. A supergroup featuring the quit & fired SPACESHIT Adam and STIPJES/European band driver Robert, they formed did a few recording sessions, a batch of 7inches, some shows and a full-length...Then ceased operation. Yeah! that's the way supergroups should be! The should never go on and on. Some should never even happen...For example The Damn Yankees. Remember the "High Enough" video where the Nuge kicks through the door in his long zebra coat and plays the guitar solo?
If this was just simply a comp. of the singles it would be enough, I know I still got a couple holes in my collection and though it does include only some of them (but a couple of them were songs I didn't have) there's a stack of unreleased 4, 8 and 16 track recordings. Some songs hit like Cheap Trick with a seriously destructive personality armed with a couple of rude sounding amplifiers and going on a crank binge. Others make ya wanna raise your glass then go out side and kick up some dust. Then there's some that got me thinkin' 'bout nothing more than buzzsaws and bubblegum. (The Hot Pockets)
JOHN WILKES BOOZE "Whiskey and Pills" (Family Vineyard/Rocknroll Blitzkrieg 7in.) A balls as big as Mack Truck yell calls out "I Wanna Know How You Feel?!!!" A voice that sound like it was kicked in the nuts calls back "I Feel Alright!!!" Then the two voices celebrate the lifestyle of a million old country western singers over a wiggly guitar howl, prime rib thick bass lines and a new wave organ tweedle! The flip's "Marc Bolan Makes Me Want To Fuck" is where the drugs really kick in working up a ball of stupor wishing for all the beautiful children to dance. I don't think they're passing out daisies though. More like passing out in the flowerbed. If you're into kicks that elevate and watching soul jams mutate John Wilkes Booze pull it out a paper bag, shake it up and spray it everywhere.
THE KILL-A-WATTS/CATHOLIC BOYS split (Electrorock 7in EP) So far everything I've heard by the KILL-A-WATTS has been way better than their debut single on Rip Off. I dunno why that is but it's true (tho the Rip-Off LP is suppose to be out in a week or so we'll see if that changes anything). This time around the songs got a stutter like never discovering midi DEVO fighting with the MAD over the last line of crank in a fireball re-entry from the planet Distortion and landing smack-dab in the middle of an abandoned Milwaukee brewery where explode in a million pieces sending a dark cloud of foulness for miles. The Kill-A-Watts breathe dirt in like oxygen.
The CATHOLIC BOYS are a couple of Teenage Rejects and Strong Come Ons NickG..or is it suppose to be lowercase...nickg...Y'know like k.d.lang. This brings up a valid point. Nick has been joshed by his Algoma and Green Bay pals about his sexuality? "HaHa" he'd play it off. How could he not like girls? After all he's got a "I LOVE NICKG" (or is that "i love nickg") website dedicated to him. I mean, c'mon, he's like the under-aged white garage rock stone cold gansta pimp of love for the northeast Wisconsin region!!! Well, then he moves to alternative lifestyle friendly Madison to attend college. Needless to say this didn't help quell jokes and suspicions...The Catholic Boys proudly claim they are leaders in the "Gay-rage Punk Sound". The word punk did have different connotations years ago and still does in prison. I wonder how many people get sent to the big house stating "I'm a punk" then wonder seconds later what the fuck is going on with all the extra attention. Then, to top it off, choosing the name the Catholic Boys in light of all the shit that's been going down in the priesthood lately...SICK! SICK! SICK!
With no "HiNRG" beats and no show tunes I don't know how they expect to capture the audience they're looking for. Who knows, maybe all those EMO kids who are turning "Garage" or something....I think this would scare them off. The songs barrel head-down and straight foward in a REDS-like way, wild guitar noisespurts everywhere and they deal with be jerked around by screaming "You FUCKIN' DRIVE ME CRAZY!
KING LOUIE ONE MAN BAND "Jesus Loves My One Man Band" (Extra Ball CD) Louie is a benevolent king. He's the kinda king who will buy you a chicken dinner if you have no money. No wonder the Lord Christ our savior digs his one man band. King Louie had songs he knew everybody wanted to hear. Relocating from New Orleans to Portland, Oregon and without a band he fancied up a bass drum/Cowbell/coffee can rig, grabbed his guitar, got a stool and sat down and got down to it. County Fair talent will never be the same when the King sets up, sits down and growls, hoots and grunts about cabbage stinkin' up the whole house and trucker drivers picking up hitchikers. The production as splattery and greasy like the Pork Chops he's yelling about and it's good to hear that Louie is still keeping his throat together with kerosene and road dust.
KO and the KNOCKOUTS s/t (Sympathy CD) Finally...Ko get's a record out. For those who don't reside in the Detroit area, Ko is the Vespa riding, bartending, "don't give me no hassle cuz if you do you will pay", personal assistant to the White Stripes sweetheart. Fronting bands like the GTB's (nee Midnight Intruders), a bass playing stint in the Come Ons and lending her voice for back-ups on Bantam Rooster and Dirtbombs records just to name a couple there's been talk for ages of when she would have something of her own to give listening pleasure. Joining her fizzy soda sweet voice with the mod-pop guitar buzz courtesy of Eddie of the Sights and the straight ahead time keeping of Jeff Klein, Ko and the Knockouts bring soul fixin's that give a crunch sunny day pop should have if it's gonna stick with me. The songs sound like the could have been written years ago not to mention yesterday. They aren't out to prove something new, they simply want to have some fun. Though their own songs stand out fine and have their melodies sticking around my head hours later, I really have to say the brisk take on Nolan Strong and the Diablos "If I" sparkles even more brightly.
THE LEGHOUNDS "XOXO" (Alien Snatch 7in EP) A couple of years ago one of these guys called me asking about getting a show booked in Detroit. I had never heard of 'em and was trying to get an idea what they were about about so I asked "What do you sound like?"
"A lot of people tell us 'The Devil Dogs'" He replied.
"Yeah, right!" I thought to myself. Y'know a lot of bands try to emulate that sound but don't pull it off right so they try to masquerade the fact with black wifebeaters, a tube of Brylcreem and pointing to the men's room calling it their "office." They forget the about the choruses swiped from tough doo-wop groups, the dirty street shamblings of the New York Dolls, the melodrama of Phil Spector and the pop hook under the raw-dawg guitar roar of the Misfits (Not a reference point you usually see mentioned with the Devil Dogs but trust me...it's in there). I blew the call off.
Who'd ever thought a band from Sheboygan, Wisconsin would get it right. The Leghounds do sound like the Devil Dogs but in a "High Praise" way. The sound of any smalltown losers dreaming beyond the nowhere to go and nothing to do cept watch things rust rig-a-more-row, celebrating what they have and what they want. They've gone past sneaking up the stairs loaded and way past curfew hopin' they don't wake the folks up. More like sneaking up the stairs to not wake the parents of the girl who's bringing them in to stay the night.
LO-LITE "Sidekicks" (Slovenly CD) Dutch cuisine is not known for it's greasy aspects. They always wanna throw an apple or apricot into everything. Lo-Lite must have one of those big oil-drum converted into a grill in their backyard. The air is always filled with the smell of a pig roasting and the sound of raw blues punk wailings. The drummer opens beer bottles by smashing them on the side of his kit and the guitar player picks up a bottleneck that's not shattered into a million pieces to use for some seriously trashy slide noise on one of the most rumbling, low-end over driven guitar amps in the entire continent. The edges are all jagged, cutting up his fingers getting blood all over the guitar neck. For their cook-out's, grave-digger's with a truckload of dynamite show up tallking about their new effiecient way to exhume bodies. They present the band the skull of Howlin' Wolf as a souvenier and good luck charm. Nope! There is no pectin enriched sweetness in Lo-Lite sound. It's salty like sweat. Who says dutch white boys can't sing and play the blues?
DAN MELCHIOR BROKE REVUE "Heavy Dirt" (In The Red CD) Dan Melchior has made a name for himself over the past few years for his work with Bruce Brand and Holly Go-Lightly. On this album the influence looms in a snotty and brash tone but the New York City based Broke Revue just aren't satisfied with beating a few r-n-b progressions to a pulp. They look in dark corners and the trunks of cars. Dingy basements piled with cobweb covered 78's of never remembered bluesmen is where they find solace. Zoot Rollo Horn and the Soul Sonic Force are invited in to give a running commentary and eventually the subterranean funk echoes outta the sewer grates and down the avenues. Double vision is incurred when making extended contact with it. Loud, rawww-cuss and filthy "Heavy Dirt" is more than just this LP's title...(In The Red)
MIDNIGHT EVILS s/t (Dart CD) I wanna down a pint of whiskey....No! I wanna down a fitfh of whiskey! Yeah! that's what I wanna do....Actually...Tequlia shots til I feel bulletproof and/or invisible. Then I wanna go out in front of the motorcycle gangs clubhouse and start knocking over hogs in the parking lot screaming insane blather that only a person in that condition and situation would do. When they start filing the metal doors these Midnight Evils would show up outta nowhere to back me up with Gibson SG's in tow. The ensuing battle would be of Angus Young proportions... His brother Malcom would parachute in to offer help. Truly impressing the bikers, everyone is invited in for some homemade tattoos and some really cut blow.
The Midnight Evils write Hi-Way songs. Like "Radar Love" or Born To Be Wild" but at supercharged and shot to hell speed. (Dart)
THE MIGHTY JOHN WAYNES "She Get's Dirty" (Rock-n-Roll Blitzkreig 7in EP) I wonder who controls John Waynes' estate and why would they sell his image to a company that used to to shill a pansy-assed light beer? LIGHT BEER? "Are ya all a bunch of yellow bellies?"
The Mighty John Waynes do their namesake proud. They don't drink no watered down light beer. They want it full flavored...Thick and heavy!! They wouldn't think of downing a light beer even with their steak and eggs and cocaine breakfast. The Mighty John Waynes don't deal well with things that are diluted...They do it full on. Fast and loud like Teengenerate joining Page era Yardbirds and the paint the town red visiting Roller Derbys and mud-wrestling matches for some poon.
Now that I think about it...I dunno if in the person who markets John Wayne's name these day would be down with this. He'd never put up with some of the shit women give these hoosiers. "That's no way for a lady to act" he'd tell him.
The type of girls the band sing about would crack ya in the jaw if you told 'em such a thing as guitars blared, drums snapped and windows broke. The idea was to capture that on tape. You can feel the rum bottle pass by your head.
THE MIRRORS "A Green Dream" (Pop Quiz LP) An acoustic guitar strums as a distant piano twinkles around it. It put's my head somewhere like a beach in the south of France enjoying a warm breeze...then the wind shifts causing the sand to whip around and waves crashing on the shore. Guitars roll in like dark clouds, howling organs blast a chill and drums crash like a torrential rains hitting the windshield. From Texas, The Mirrors breathe the same dust that affected the heads of the Thirteenth Floor Elevators and Red Krayola. Though the band lives closer to Krayola's intitial base of Houston than the Elevators Austin, twisters carry the dust through the states flat and barren landscape putting a thick layer of soot in the living room "A Green Dream" was recorded in. Instead of getting out the furniture polish...The Mirrors open up the back door and let other foreign particle blow in. This dirt helps them develop a sound that sets them a part from boring revisionists. Just when it seems the storm has settled and the sunlight peeks through another cloudburst of sound drenches the speakers.
THE MISTREATERS "No More" (Goodbye Boozy 7in) The 'treaters are known for their primate growlin' thud-n-whack. Life's great experiences have learned me that most mentally stable girls are not down with that type of stuff. It's a given that girls that don't rock-n-roll are a drag...but they like a swing and sway, not the type of stumble this Milwaukee band is known for. Here they cover two songs by the Wallace Brothers (who scratched at the pop charts with their song "Lover's Prayer" in the mid 60's) and I'm thinking the next time me and my better half leave the bar I'm gonna pop a recording of this in the player and see if it DOESN'T guarantee me getting a sweat on when I get home. A heart-rippin' plea standing out in the muddy rain just askin' for a warm floor to lay on. Chicks can't resist stuff like that. It's storming outside, they hear some noise outside, open the door and see a cat shivering and looking hungry. They bring it in, towel it off, give it some food and an hour later the thing is spraying everywhere and clawing up the furniture. It ain't storming outside right now but I'm thinking about walking upstairs right now and seeing if I can get some coo's of my own. (Mistreaters site)
MODEY LEMON s/t (A-F Records CD) I think that over the next year these gonna be a lot of debate over two piece bands. I can see it putting band's like Pittsburgh's Modey Lemon under scrutiny. Are they "for real" or is it a parlour trick. Don't forget that every time something get's hot, swindling companies flood the market with so many counterfeits and also-rans that even those who have learned to swim through the bullshit feel like they're starting to drown. Having a sound based out of the wreckless blues framework, it would be easy to spout off about vocal inflections and chord changes but there is it's own odd look at things going on here. Heavy bonged out thudding and unearthly Moogs abounds make it's own mess underneath monstrous Telecaster detonation and words delivered in a chicken scratched preachification.
The MODEY LEMON don't sound like alt-rockers who caught a story on MTV2 and borrowed a Robert Cray record from their uncle because "The blues ARE IT and vinyl is cool" (but wait those bands are coming.) They do sound like the know how to get the blood stains off of carpets, car seats and cotton fabric cuz they've dealt with it plenty of times before. How the fuck they end up on Hot Topic's "Fuck the System" favorites ANTI-FLAG's label????
MOORAT FINGERS "Actung Duschbag" (Big Neck 7in EP) Every year or so Alice Cooper puts out a new album and the loyal come out in droves to pick it up. Now, it's easy to think "Get over it! Get on with your life" and some of 'em have. They know old Alice ain't gonna do a great album but maybe, just maybe, he might sneak one by. A lot of these guys are into to the subtle and no so subtle Coop influenced bands the Hellacopters, Supersuckers and Turbonegro. The Moorat Fingers are German mongrel offspring of the two minus the palm mutes.
Snide singing (in both German and English) & loud arena sized rock chords rape any hole they can get into then ask the limo-driver to race back to the private jet so they flee another flea bitten town. Even at 100,000 feet all they still can see the flames growing higher and higher. (Big Neck)
THE NECROS "Conquest For Death +" (boot LP) I haven't heard this record in ages. At the time I noticed it was missing the band had already broken up and musically had tarnished their legacy with Funk Metal and cock rock. Do you realize how much knee, elbow and face meat met the grinder called cement as THIS blared in the background? This sounds as vicious and stupid as it did day one giving the latter years shark jumping wounds to heel. I put this on, started, turned the volume as loud as it would go then I busted out my old skateboard and rode it down the cement steps leading to my basement...Stef, my better half, was not too amused.
"Stop it you crazy ass! You gonna kill yourself"
Number one son Lucas is urging me to "Do a trick Dad!" as his little brother Nolan eggs it on shouting "Go! Pa! Go Pa!"
Obviously, with me ignoring her and setting a goofus example for the boys, Stef is steamin' miffed! I take one last clumsy excursion down the steps and...CRASH!!!! KAAHHH-BLANG!!! There's a landing and a turn halfway down the steps. Above it is a ledge with paint cans and jars of nails. They all crash to the floor.
"What's that NOISE?" she asks with a flustered tone.
"It's the NECROS, who along with Negative Approach, created the Midwest version of hardcore that..."
"Not the music!" she interupts "I mean that crashing noise!!"
"Oh, um....Nothing." Good cover up there, huh?
She slams the door shut before I could explain to her that this collection includes not only the "Conquest For Death" LP but the "I.Q. 32" and "Sex Drive" stuff and well...everything else from the early part of their career. I've heard that the people who put this out were threatened with legal action but this is the closest anyone can get to a NECROS anthology. Frontman Barry Hensler now goes under the name Chamberweed, spins dance records in Chicago niteclubs and continues to fight hard and long to keep this stuff out of print. Not really from Detroit and not really from Ann Arbor. They're were from a town outside of Toledo, Ohio. They were kids pissed off and bored..., to me it defines a time and an era.
THE NIFTERS "Riding Shotgun" (Scooch Pooch CD) Another gang of unassuming looking Swedes with METAL on the brain. It's spun up to the speed of Zeke, the pick slides of the Supersuckers and flash wah-wah guitar solos but the singers voice doesn't take far enough into the sleeze zone. He just doesn't sound degenerate enough. He's trying though but he needs Satan, more cigarettes or a stripper with a bad reputation girlfriend...Maybe it's the Scandinavian genetics but they don't look at all dangerous. Look at the Hookers. They were evil as fuck AND looked like the redneck sons of bitches from Kentucky you wouldn't mess with (cuz they were.) What's so rough and tumble about Sweden? C'mon, even all the vikings with their raping and pillaging were Norwegain. These guys look like they have girlfriends who are total bitches but it's cool for the ROCK image. When is one of these bands gonna employ a vocalist with Bruce Dickinson like pipes ??? I'd be down with that. (Scooch Pooch)
PAUL E ESTER & the CRUEL SHOES "Eyeliner"(Rapid Pulse 7in EP) Direct line guitars! Just straight into the board. They just give them a sting. It's Mike from the Metros providing that nasty tone on this record. You've also got members of the Piranhas, the Sights and Murder City Wrecks in the band. I'm talkin' about Detroit! Yeah! Oh yeah! A Gritty chug caked in Cass Ave dive bar bathroom ooze. The words delivered in in a foghorn voice are taken from it's walls. The bar is filled vets of the (drug) war who scream for Led Zepplin so the band plays "Train Kept A' Rollin'" and no one is none the wiser cuz they blitz through quick enough were folks thought they must've missed the big solos when they were ordering more drinks. (Underground Medicine)
THE PINKS "Something About You" (Gearhead 7in) Man! It's soooo gray outside. I'm talkin gray...GRAY GRAY! GRAY!!! Fuckin' Michigan!!! Even if I woke up in a bright mood, I'd look outside...It would still be gray! White snow turned to gray slush! The salt on the streets leaving a milky and sooty gray residue over anything else. I wish there was some brightness outside other than the glare from whatever sunlight reflecting off the frozen snow covered ground...everything's so dull. Then I put onthis PINKZ record. It's sunny....Man! What great harmonies. There's also a crunch in it that perks up my ears. There's so many bands trying to imitate some kinda California feelin' poppy punk but end up ruining it with a Peavey amp sound and a drummer who plays the same cymbal ride in every song. The PINKZ, featuring former members of LOLI and the CHONES and BITCH SCHOOL, cut out the frills and go straight to the root. I'm talkin' the song. The chords bite like mescal and the voices soothe like a sweet breeze. Tone on the basslines in that understated way that made the lead tracks on both sides of the Holly and the Italians "Right To Be Italian" so boss and a minor classic (ignoring the way too much gloss that hinders most of it of course) While were on the subject, I always liked "I Wanna Go Home" more than "Tell That Girl..." It seems like every month I hear another west coast band hitting the mark on sounding like being raised AM radio damaged and it became the stepping stone to the "HARD STUFF". But what may have that been? Cheap Trick? Blondie? The Undertones? Who paid for Rachel Sweet's sins? There's an example of studio gloss. She never posed in a tattered communion dress...Holly Beth Vincent never did a song with Rex Smith though either. He lives in L.A. The PINKZ take swigs of beer and laugh when the drive by and see him out waiting at the bus stop. This is fried into my brain right now. I dig them harmonies!
The PIRHANAS s/t (On/On Switch CD) I know I've gone on and on about wrecking my car but it had a CD player in it and this disc was getting played A LOT! It's pretty much a collection of the hard to find since day one Tom Perkins releases. I think they're were a couple of songs missing but off the top of my head I can't remember exactly which one's and since the disc is still in my car in a tow yard in Shitcago I can't go down to the Rock Bunker (i.e. my basement) and confirm it. There are two unreleased tracks here though. One a radio commercial featuring the voice of Charles (from Charles Records) and another that's even weird and unnerving for the Piranhas usual ADD mindfucks! If you haven't been able to find this stuff here's you're best chance. If you've been holding it out being afraid it may just be to puzzling you're probably better off to keep away cuz you're. The Piranhas aren't about hot riffs and hand-clapping choruses. The Piranhas are perplexing, they get under the skin when a person is preoccupied with trying to figure out what is going on. Once it's in the bloodstream it's hard to cleanse out. (On/On Switch and The Piranhas site)
THE POKERS "Maximum Punk Rocknroll" (CD)/"Ignite" (7in) (Weird) Hailing from the U.K. it's not hard to image these guys getting loaded in a pub, raising their pints and starting trouble. You can hear it in their sound. Working all day in a tedious job and looking foward to that 5 o'clock whistle to quaff a few but the watering hole is flooded with disco boys and NOFX fans. It drives 'em to the brink. Yeah, it aint much different anywhere else but the bloke sung choruses and a rat-ta-tat-tat beat delivered in a Slaughter and the Dogs punch cannot hide where they are from. They send it into a trashy spin by tossing in a Dwarves screech and a Black Flag blur. They speak universal rock-n-roll language of "I hate last call" (the pokers)
THE RADIO REELERS "Radio Feeling"(Zaxxon Virile Action 7in EP) I wish I had the radio these guys are talking about. When ever I listen to mine I just wanna throw it out the window but the Reelers get a "Radio Feeling" that makes comb the hair, drink a ton and act all dumb like the TRUST FUND BABIES. Jeff of the Fells is the guitar player here and it sounds like he takes a big swig of octane with loud volume additives.
THE REDS "It's About Time" (Rip Off LP) Take an old kitchen knife and use it to hack away layers of skin. Keep cutting away pieces til just before the bone. Just the raw nerves exposed and they're throbbing with a distinctive pain. "It's About Time" strips down to the bone and keep pumpin' in Teengenerate plasma to keep it from bleeding to death. It sounds like they were dropped into a 6ftX6ft cinderblock room with 8ft high walls and someone dangled down a mic. They were told to keep playing to the mortar started to crumble. Watch out for flying bricks if you can ever see them. The Reds mission was accomplished. They did it with necksnappin' precision and the way these songs jump violently and rapidly vibrate there's no doubting these texans
died with their boots on.
THE RIFF RANDELLS "How About Romance" (Lipstick 7in EP) I feel like I'm walking downtown with a couple of friends and some girl yells "Yeow BABY!" out the window of her Firebird. Yep! Chicks in the midwest do that (and they still drive Firebirds) We shout back "Hey! What your name" but they're off with the change of the traffic light. We'd discuss how it may be some girls who just moved here and they'd be cool unlike all the ones around town and would listen to cool music like the Ramones and Nikki and the Corvettes. We were never even close. Sometimes they'd come back around the block and crank up Loverboy and yell "Yeow BABY" again then take off with the change of the stoplight. So what if they were actually the girls we hoped they'd be? I'm sure the Riff Randells play the Ramones really loud in their car. My friends and I would all be positvie of this. Finally one of us would yell "Why the FUCK don't people realize that any guy who wears spandex is a fag!?!" (Real deep thinking for a 14 year old) then we'd go to the arcade and get called punk rock fags. We never met girls like Nikki Corvette though we'd see a lot of dudes dressed in the tight and stretchy fabric (with the hi-top Nike's with the tongue sticking out on their feet). Maybe we should kept looking out the door for them girls to come back again. "Yeow! BABY!"
"Hey! What's you're name?"
"Riff Randell" then the light would change green again.
Teenage pop they way it should be. Catchy and cracklin'with sweetness that makes the teeth hurt and a hiss to mom for asking why you're going out dressed that way.(Riff Randells)
STERNOSNAKE "Ray Of Light" (Dull City 7in EP) Every year at the Miss Universe pageant, Finland always has one of the prettiest girls out of the whole lot representing their country. Sternosnake hail from the same country and after listening to this I have a theory of why this is. If the males in Finland look at all like the way this band sounds, they're all brooding bruisers who will punch you out. They use up all the ugly and mean genes!!! When the movie "La Bamba" was a big hit there was a bar band in town that started covering the title song. The singer didn't know how to speak Spanish and sang the song just by copying the enunciations. I would always wondered if some Mexicans showed up in the bar would they all get pissed off at the singer for messing up the words and whip the shit out of him. You should hear these Fin's do "Hidden Charms". I don't think I'd try to fuck with these guys though cuz they sound like pissed off giants.
SUPERHELICOPTER LTD "My Soul" (Yaksakana 7in EP) This french label is absolutely in the sweepstakes with Alien Snatch as my favorite "new" label. They're another one that understand the beauty of good packaging. Yakisakana records are done up in silkscreen covers with messed up color schemes. They always stand out from the dozens upon dozens black and white photocopied covered singles in my collection. That comes in handy when me and some cronies are in down in the Smashin' Transistors Rock Bunker, knocking back beers, gettin' high and spinning records. The records STAND OUT which makes them easier to find.
Here SUPERHELICOPTER get the blues! Deep down blues! The kind of blues someone get's when they drop a chainsaw running full-throttle on their feet taking one off above the ankle. In the hospital, nurses are running in the room every five minutes to double the amount of painkillers in the drip. It hurts and SUPERHELICOPTER want everyone to know. (Yakisakana )
TEENAGE REJECTS "Teen Trash Vol. 2" (Alien Snatch 7in EP) Young, dumb and fulla cum these Neenah, Wisconsin post-adolescents triple their can of cheap beer in one hand and live grenade in the other sound of their Rip-Off debut simply but putting more songs on the record. It was that simple and simple is the key word here. Obnoxiously fast and knowing that using more than three or four chords would simply be clutter the Rejects show why they were the bane of their High-School guidence counselors. Then again, that probably all started when they took that "career profile" thing people take in High School and their results came back as liquor store clerks and glue sniffers. Hell, they were such wrecks they couldn't even the band together...This is, as ROCK LIT. cats would say, a posthumous release. It's like the Angry Samaons coming into someone's house, they got cowshit all over their boots but ain't gonna take them off or even wipe them on the Welcome map cuz they don't give a fuck.
20 DOLLAR WHORE s/t (Big Neck 7in EP) It's a good thing parents just let the kids be in the basement. Lettin' teenagers rule the reigns down there. The folks don't wanna even know what's going on and write that funny smell off as "Well, It IS a musty basement...and there is that basketful of dirty socks..." Skinmags strewn all over the floor mixed in with copies of Alice Cooper and Nine Pound Hammer records it's real late at night/early in the morning but their so tanked and they from Finland so it's the season of the midnight sun....Party down...There's this strange parralel of this part of the world and the midwest ,'specially the deer huntin'. If wonder if the Nuge ever bagged a reindeer? (Big Neck)
The VOLUMEN s/t (Wantage 7in EP) These guys are originally from Laramie Wyoming. My friend Al went to school there and he said he highly doubts that a cool band could ever come outta the town. C'mon, the state is shaped like a square!!! Then you gotta look at the everyday struggles. They probably have to do 3 sets a night of covers at a bowling alley, sneaking in an original when then rednecks seem drunk enough not to notice. It doesn't make 'em cool though cuz then they get really nuts and tear into the Barenaked Ladies/Primus/Chubby Checker medley...Oh wait a minute...That was an original. I thought the last tracks on both sides had some funky dj remix stuff going on but closer examination showed that I got a defective copy...It looks like there was a bubble that popped in the vinyl. The label this is released on, Wantage outta Missoula, Mt., has let loose a couple of off-kilter gems in the past but I'm gonna have to stand on Al's side of the fence this time around. One cool thing about Wyoming is that their state fish is called the Cutthroat Trout...That's a pretty bad ass name for a fish!!! (Wantage)
VON BONDIES "Lack Of Communication" (Sympathy LP) When did they start making spaghetti westerns with the Detroit's Cass Ave. as the background. A street of loser,sinners and one eyed drifters scavenging for hand outs and throwaways that'll get them their next dose of slow poison. A chilling lilt echos through the boarded up buildings only to be stomped on by a 50 ton ball of fuzz. Looking over the paranoid shoulder for what's following and hoping to spot a way out the Von Bondies experience it being drowned in a paper bag. It may hold on tight and seem like a lullaby for the trampled souls but come daylight it's dropped to the pavement left in a million broken pieces. It stares into the horizon through the steaming fog that rolls out from under the streets in hopes of something, ANYTHING, that'll give them redemption. Jesus doesn't walk these streets much. It's too much of a hassle for him anymore. Besides, with Jack Whites moody production job here, it doesn't seem that the darkness is through with them yet. (Sympathy)
V/A "920 Blues" (Trick Knee LP) Comps are a gamble. There's been plenty where there's a name band to lure the buyer in and their song is some throwaway that they didn't put on one of their own releases. Then there's those scene comps that proliferate today which consist of "You give me some cash and in exchange I'll put your band on it and give you some CD's for it (I've been seeing a lot of these lately...AND THEY'RE CDR's....don't the bands ever bitch about the scam involved?). It's very rare that a comp will have any continuity or more than just a couple of songs even worth owning. Then there's the rare example like this one. This is a labor of love. Sure, there's a ringer but it's the Reds from Austin, Texas. They always crank out great tunes and the one offerd up here is no exception. The rest of it is nothing but Wisconsin bands ! Lately the cheese state has become THE place for full-on gut-wrenching, out on a backroad beer drinking, crappy weather having, fist fighting, deerhunting, grown-up hating, cop despising., getting kicked out of school flat out rock-n-roll.
Let's break it down into towns. The record starts out with the TEENAGE REJECTS outta Neenah who kick it off with a bang an already this comp is dispelling myths. Their "She's My Girl" tops the single they did for Rip-Off just on sheer velocity. It's the long lived trebled bug in your ear screech but this song just comes crashing over the speakers in blast where you just know there jumpin' all around. YESTERDAYS KIDS are the other Neenah band who chime in. Man! 80's cover tunes are such a predicatable source for the "modern punk bands like New Found Glory or whoever....but their take on the Police's "Next To You" sounds like some long lost power pop chestnut back when those types of bands remembered that word power was part of the context.
The former do an offtempo herk and jerk that's like riding in a car with manual transmission and the person behind the wheel doesn't know how to drive a stick and sends it slamming into a wall. The latter is more of the 'Treaters patented blues hate vibe giving the Gories "I Think I've Had It" quite a pummeling.
I've been told several times how Sheboygan's LEGHOUNDS have a Devil Dogs thing going on. "Yeah right" I think. A lot of bands attempt to emulate that sound but few succeed in doing it right. They do it some justice by throwing some energy and lust into it which gives them their own piece of pie instead of scraping up crumbs. Other Sheboygan's residents the SHUT-UPS have a record out on Junk and play that hard rockin' with bad attitude that strippers SHOULD be dancing to.
The first offer from Green Bay are the MYSTERY GIRLS . I first heard about these boys last summer. I knew nothing about 'em and all I was told was "Nobody wants to go on after them." When I saw them play I learned why. A big thick and fuzzy wah-wah stomp they crank fired up like the Radio Birdman/MC5 fulla hunger and spirit...It's all about the 'tang and these fresh outta Hi-School boys have got what it takes. They're too good!! "Hit Me Again" wouldn't be my first choice for their vinyl debut but it ain't no slouch either. This recording is over a year old and even the band think it's not a fair representation of what they're doin' now but it gives you an idea of what they're capible of...They've gotten even better. IT'S ABOUT THE NOW, BABY!!! The Derks are also from the (Green) Bay Area and offer up a cover of the Damned's "Neat, Neat, Neat" before the final line-up went crazy and disappeared into the woods.
The STRONG COMES ONS are the odd band out being there are the only one's representing Algoma...but how many people can there be in the town anyways. I bet every other one there has called the cops on these guys for making a racket. They're sooo loud, bloozy and pissed y'know the guy down at the corner liquor store has made a mint off them and everybody talks behind their back about how one of 'em might blow his cool and kill somebody.
Ah yes....the midwest. It'll never have the appeal of L.A. or London but they just don't care. A basement, living room, garage or an abandoned trailer is just as good as long as someone gets the beer even if they're playing for three people and two of 'em are assholes. There's a ton of good sounds goin' down up Wisconsin way but it wont be the next Rock mecca. They're too unruly and way much Rock-n-Roll. Besides, Starbucks don't serve beer.
V/A "Superhelicopter Recorder" (Superhelicopter CD) Talking about building a mysterious legacy!!! Here, Nils, the sick head of Superhelicopter, rounds up a couple of bands into his room and lets them bang and thrash into the tape machine that has brought me many an evening of earbleeding bliss of his band's recordings. Both the DAMNATION KIDS and BEATKILLER have bloody throated screamers at the mics whos voices pass a resemblence to his and share the same fucked sound that staggers between the full out terror of Negative Approach and the drunken ramble of Crypt records best. Listening to entire thing it makes me wonder if Nils influence looms that large in his part of Germany or if he's taking notes from it's communist ruled history and commandeers it all with an iron fist and takes over all proceedings. SUPERHELICOPTER close out this three band comp with some of their most "the Germs buy Robert Johnson's soul from the Devil at a flea market and burn it" weirdness yet. For a band that is supposed to be broken up they sure do keep kicking out the racket!!! Nil's keeps warning me that he will soon come to the United States, he'll show Nick Lloyd and I the songs and after one practice we will go drink Detroit , Chicago and Green bay under the table. We will call ourselves SUPERHELICOPTER USA! The blurry history grows more and more.(Superhelicopter)
Reviews from
Nov.2001 to June 2002
