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52 Pick-Up "Evolutionary Crisis" www.hippykillerinc.co.uk | |
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These Brits do something I always wanted to hear: have two guitars… one guitar cranking out over-driven redneck metal licks dipped in mud, and the other with a strong reverby tone chiming in at all the right parts to make it nice and eerie. And you know what? This disc proves it can work rather well. 52 Pick-Up plays a sort of southern horror punk with distorted-but-sung hillbilly vocals, all coming off like something that might happen if the guy from Texas Chainsaw Massacre started a punk band. The singing could maybe use a touch more muscle, but overall this is music for sweaty, gun-totin' meat-eaters. - BL
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7 Shot Screamers “In Wonderland” www.bigmuddyrecords.org | |
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Often tagged as Psychobilly, what I love about the 7 Shot Screamers is that they are at least as influenced by Johnny Thunders, New York Dolls, T-Rex, and Sweet as much as The Sharks, Guana Bats, and Frantic Flintstones. Hell there may even be some Jethro Tull, Neil Diamond, and even some Muppets influence too. The result pretty much puts them in a class of their own, either embraced by both the punk and ‘billy scenes or shunned by the lamebrains within each. With each successive album (this is their third), their influences get more and more subtle as they move forward with their own unique sound. “In Wonderland” steps further away from the Rockabilly song structures than ever before, and they have more glammy hooks and substantive songwriting. Don’t expect hackneyed musicianship, throaty vocals, or songs about zombies in graveyards. Often “In Wonderland” has lighter interludes encroaching on some of the anthemic rockers of their past, but generally not too much so that they lose momentum, and I am really enjoying following them on their next phase of their evolution. There is even some bizarre orchestration with cello, violin, flute, harmonica, and trumpet employed to great effect in different places. It took me a few listens to fully ingest everything on this disc and come to grips with it, but if you are looking for something original that challenges your expectations and isn’t produced for scenester consumption, you’ve found it. - Ben
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7k “Knick Knacks and Apparel” www.luckmedia.com | |
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Luck Media isn’t a label, but a PR marketing firm hired by bands. 7k definitely sounds like a band trying desperately to “make it” with a contemporary alternative sound lacking any sort of edge. If you like their influences such Live, Audioslave, 311, or Jimmy Eat World, then you might dig this, but even then I doubt it. I find it horrible, pointless, and vapid. I’d put this at the same level as modern Christian Rock. Stunningly horrendous. - Ben
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A-Bomb Chop Shop “Grim Reaper Blue” myspace.com/abombchopshop | |
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Very much like the early Cramps, A-Bomb Chop Shop goes for that primitive home-brewed taste brought on by a full-blown rockabilly delirium. They fall just shy of that mark, however, with the sparse song-writing not being balanced by monster hooks and the vocals too easy to shrug off. I suspect the next release by these guys might work out the kinks, though, and find their voice in the thick canopy of the psychobilly jungle. - Ben
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The Abe Lincoln Story “Kings of the Soul Punk Swing” www.soulpunkswing.com | |
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I was intrigued by the idea behind the title of this CD, and the fact that they were a ten-piece band, but I felt pretty let down upon listening. The songs seem mostly Ska and light jazz-influenced, and the vocals drove me nuts. Lyrically, it is exceptionally stupid, and not the charming kind of good stupid. “I don’t want to die, I just want to get high?” “L.A. Is My Lady?” Imagine those lines delivered in the most horrid sounding choruses you ever heard throughout seemingly endless tracks. The “Family and Friends” song was so hokey I felt my brain quiver in disbelief. I think they are trying to be cute and quirky, but it just made me wince. And what the hell is “punk” about this? It’s more like hippies with a brass section. I was more saddened about the missing Soul aspect, though, since my friend and I just had a conversation about the lack of bands influenced by the great Soul and R&B of the 60’s. This disc really struck my gag reflex. - Ben
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The Altarboys “Greatest Hits Vol. 2” www.lastchancerecords.com | |
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Aggressive street punk from Portland played with some skill and bite to it. They do it better than a lot of their peers, but it still isn’t all that interesting to me. I’ve just gotten so incredibly burnt out on that sound. There is a lot more lead guitar here than any street punk band I’ve heard before, though, for better or worse, giving it a slight greaser punk feel. It just isn’t something I can ever see myself being in the mood to listen to again. - Ben
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Altered State “Get Real” www.luckmedia.com | |
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This is a Canadian female-fronted indie rock band with a radio-friendly approach and probably some Pretenders influence, I guess. It doesn’t really do anything for me, except make me long for the mediocrity of the last thing I reviewed. Pretty terrible stuff. – Ben
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AluminumKnotEye "Trunk Lunker" www.dead-beat-records.com | |
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I caught AluminumKnotEye at an afternoon show before the Chicago Blackout this year. I thought they we pretty good, but the singer seemed to be trying real hard to be a yelping, screaming wildman without much success. I just wasn't feelin' it. However, this LP is fucking awesome. Noisy, nonsensically arranged (or de-ranged) compositions claw at your ears with weird sort of urban savagery. Their press sheet said "future primitivism" and I'm not gonna argue. This self-recorded midwest masterpiece manages to explode the garage punk genre while at the same time sounding completely natural as it punches in your brains. Sometimes it is angular and odd, other times it is spastic and infectious. Maybe I just wasn't ready for this yet when I saw them. I am ready now. – BL
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The Amazing Ralph Green “His Music, His Story” www.discriminateaudio.com | |
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You get 2 discs and a 24-page booklet covering more than 40 years of this eccentric performer’s career. What a life. This ex-communicated Mormon polygamist had his brush with stardom in the 50’s, but has since lingered in relative obscurity playing “outsider music,” at times homeless and busking for change. To say the music on disc one is a little weird, is like saying the desert is a little dry. There are songs about shock treatment, homicide, acid, Lorena Bobbit, and the “Planet of the Rain” to name a few. This “Guitar Pickin’ Teabag” isn’t exactly average on disc two either, actually, which chronicles his earlier rockabilly stuff as a “Star Trekkin’ Rock N’ Roll Cowboy.” While a lot of the songs are definitely oddball or silly, they are also well-written and good beyond mere novelty. It’s a great package featuring some bizarre music that I’m glad to have in my collection. - Ben
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Antiseen “Badwill Ambassadors” www.tkorecords.com | |
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If you know Antiseen, you know what to expect here: low, rumbling guitars churning out simple Southern Punk from command central of the Confederacy of Scum. They’ve been doing this forever, and it is one of the few things like death and taxes that you can count on. They’ll never try to branch out as artists and do a rock opera, or get lesbian hairdos and try to cram their fried food and beer ravaged asses into girlie jeans. It’s redundant redneck rock with a red state sensibility that is good for a handful of songs from time to time, but not something I’m a big fan of. Listenable, but it gets stale quick when left out in the air. - Ben
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Asono “One Man army” www.asonoband.com | |
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There is a phenomenon I’ve noticed over the years. Working-class folks who work a job where the radio is always playing will gradually start to like stuff that is played over and over, which without that frequent exposure, they would completely disregard. Asono reeks of a band that hopes to climb the hipster ladder towards the fabled Cloud City from where they can blow their mild rock onto the common man in gusting winds of endemic marketing. They are a British indie rock outfit with all the requisite indie rock outfits. They pepper things up a bit with 80’s power ballad guitars, but it still seems like only freshman college girls or hostages of commercial radio in the workplace would warm to it. There is technically nothing overtly bad in their execution, and hell, they probably really feel what they are singing about. It is just that I don’t. It feels very formulated to me. I don’t get the emotion. I don’t hear any chances being taken with the delivery. It seems engineered and lifeless to me… like mannequin in a storefront window, or a montage song on some shit TV show like Grey’s Anatomy. It is fair to say that I am not their target market. I’ll hide safely tucked away in an underground bunker when the next British Invasion wafts through town. - Ben
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Astro Zombies “Burgundy Livers” www.raucousrecords.com | |
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This is a live album by this French Psychobilly band and it really captures their talent and diversity. They do versions of the Cure’s “Plastic Passion”, Nancy Sinatra’s (and Cher’s) “Bang Bang” (written by Sonny Bono), and “Bertha Lou” by Johnny Faire, as well as a whole slew of their originals. While for the most part I am not a huge fan of live albums, this one has really good sound and shows that they are true musicians and not just studio alchemists. - Ben
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Atlantic Manor “All the Best Girls Have Winter Hearts” www.theatlanticmanor.com | |
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I guess I’d describe this as minimalist indie rock with a wistfulness enveloped in lengthy elegant dirges. The first song, “Desperation,” went over 6 minutes in a hypnotic tip-toe before vocals dropped in. Self-described as “lo-fi and heartfelt,” I would argue that this doesn’t sound very lo-fi but it does seem heartfelt. It is melancholic and progresses as softly as it does slowly. I have no short attention span, and this is pretty music that I respect, but it just isn’t something I would listen to a lot. I did like the Velvet Undergroundish dissonance on “Open Arms,” though. - Ben
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Backdoor Stan & His Busted Balls 7-song CD-R www.myspace.com/backdoorstan | |
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Uncouth trashy rock’n’roll with a lot of blues grit stuck in the teeth. The levels are a little quiet, almost sounding recorded on a boom box, but you get the point. Pretty fun stuff. - Ben
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Beautiful Bert & the Slags “Trash Rock” CD-R myspace.com/bbslags | |
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Scum rock in the tradition of the Bulemics, Limecell, Cocknoose, etc. Songs like “Detox Train,” “Beer Burgers and Broads,” and “Merle Killed G.G.” give you an idea where they’re coming from. While bands of this ilk are generally listenable, only a handful have raised the bar (or lowered it, depending on your perspective) and managed to make a sleaze a virtue. Here I thought they did the songs the right way and were decent, but still nothing really stuck out and gave them their own identity. - Ben
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Bent Left “Skeletons in Your Closet” www.bentleft.com | |
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Bent Left plays politically charged street punk in the style of Anti-Flag or the Unseen. Guitars are thick and kind of gallop-picked, and the vocals are gruff. They seem like a good bunch of kids with their hearts in the right place but the musical approach just doesn’t move me much. - Ben
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Big John Bates “Take Your Medicine” www.bigjohnbates.com | |
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My favorite permutations of modern rockabilly are generally the ones that forego genre purity and limitations and take a more iconoclastic approach. That is not to say that Big John Bates plays something completely new, but just that he grazes in many pastures and feels no need to do a re-enactment of 1956. He draws on everything from punk, to tin pan alley, to The Cramps and Annihilator (the 80’s metal band he used to be in and pays homage to on this CD), and even Arabic-sounding guitarwork on “Salome’s Last Dance.” While I tend to think his vocals are a little over-affected, there are plenty of strong tunes on here, maintaining them as one of the better bands keeping their heads above water in a landscape sectioned off into strict musical pieties and scene dogmas. - Ben
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Bishop “Steel Gods” www.bishopmusic.com | |
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Very much 80’s style arena rock metal but sort of radio-friendly 90’s modern rock at the same time, with a very distinct aroma of Alice In Chains and Soundgarden. In fact, I think their best song, “Jib,” could be played for a diehard Soundgarden fan and they’d think it was a long lost track from the “Superunknown” album. Overall, the album feels too commercial, for lack of a better word. Feels like a group trying to do well in a niche market rather than rock the hell out. Naturally, I can’t speak to their motivations, but this definitely didn’t inspire me to punch the air with glory. - Ben
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The Black List “Beginning of the End” www.potusmusic.com | |
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Pop Punk influenced by Face to Face, Lagwagon, et al. I thought it was finally unfashionable to do this kind of band. It sounds like a million other bands I can’t tell apart. - Ben
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Blitzkid "Five Cellars Below" www.blitzkid.com | |
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The first two tracks of this album start things off completely on the wrong foot for me. They’re both really generic sounding fast psychobilly numbers that sound like about a million other bands. After that the band hops around stylistically quite a bit. There’s slickly produced, radio friendly rock on songs like “Lady in the Lake” (some of the hooks seriously remind me of Under Lock and Key era Dokken) and “Dementia 13”. “Terror in the Haunted House” mixes that melodic rock approach with the band’s psychobilly side, and the result is one of the better songs on here. “Genus Unknown” also stands out, and not just because it’s about my favorite cryptozoological monster, Mothman. It’s actually one of the few songs on here that’s both catchy and has a little bit of an edge. “Demon Machine” is kind of a grunge/stoner rock sounding number, followed by the rockabilly ballad “The Torn Prince”. The band also turns in a cover of “Bloodletting” that has none of the eroticism of the original. Ultimately, Five Cellars Below is just a little too slick sounding for my tastes. But putting that aside, while I think a lot of the songs on here are good for what they are, the album is just too schizophrenic. It almost sounds like a different band on every other song. At least they don’t rip off the Misfits. - Bob Ignizio
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Bloody Ol’ Mule “Satan’s Farm” myspace.com/bloodyolmule | |
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Bloody Ol’ Mule plays an often somber mix of blues and country laden with pangs of spiritual angst. Not really a one man band (he is only accompanied by his acoustic guitar, no drums), Oklahoma native Shilo Brown has nevertheless crafted an appealing album with a healthy layer of reverb coating the vocals. With only an acoustic guitar to accompany him, however, I could not help but want some other instrumentation, drums, or even a different guitar tone to create more variation on these 16, mostly same tempoed, tracks. With some other musicians, or maybe self-accompanying with harmonica and drums, he could retain some of the solitary songs while mixing in some fuller tracks. Still, there is a generous helping of some good tunes to be mined here. - Ben
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The Blowtops “P.S. This Is A Zombie” www.bigneckrecords.com | |
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The Blowtops roll out dark grooves with an off-kilter mindset, sometimes marching determinedly through glue, sometimes swinging sledgehammers in cross-eyed deliberation. Often I get the feel of someone on the brink of megalomaniacal disaster suddenly getting distracted with an irrelevant thought that strikes him funny. It’s a weird ride, man. Put this one down in their win column. - Ben
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Blue Demon “The Undisputed Kings” EP www.mimishimarecords.com | |
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These guys aren’t re-inventing the wheel, but they do play extremely well. I’d say this is an edgy sort of neo-rockabilly with a Reverend Horton heat sort of tone to the guitars. Out of 4 songs here, 2 are quite good instrumentals. The vocals on the other tracks really remind me of someone, but I can’t place who it is. I am wavering over whether I like them. “Black Eyed Devil” is definitely better when it kicks up the speed half way through. All in all, though, I’d say this is a pretty good first showing for these “undisputed kings of fuck all.” I’d be curious enough to hear more. I think maybe some of the impact is lost due to it being over-produced. There is definitely potential here. – BL
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Botox Party CD E.P. myspace.com/botoxpartyva | |
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A pop punk and hardcore punk amalgamation from Richmond, Virginia, with a strong metallic sheen to the guitars. They have the expected young punk band lyrics about Social Security, friendship, conformity, elitism, etc., but they seem earnest about it… not as if they sat down and said, “I like punk, let’s start a punk band, punk bands sing about (fill in the blank).” Their music leaves me cold and unaffected, though. Again, they seem like nice chaps and I’d probably share my home-brewed beer with them. - Ben
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Bram Riddlebarger & The Wailin’ Elroys “On the Bum” www.rhythmbomb.com | |
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The Wailin’ Elroys have always invited Hank Sr. and Wayne Hancock comparisons, though still allowing their own animus to shine through their influences. Here they further nurture their own sound, and with often glowing results. The album title is accurate because there is a definite melancholy feel to many of the songs, but it’s a sincere melancholy that forms its aesthetic around resolute pessimism, transient joys, and dissatisfied longing. They don’t overly rely on the contrived romanticism of the down and out clichés endemic to country, but resuscitate them with personal feeling undercutting any notion of shallow kitsch. Probably my favorite tracks, though, are the beautiful instrumental “East Austin Breakdown” and the stunning cover of Mike Ness’ “It’s The Law.” “On The Bum” serves as a great example of modern honky tonk, and a testament to the fact that antiquated musical styles can be timeless and vital beyond mere nostalgia. - Ben
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Brown Paper Bag “It’s Supposed to be Offensive” CD-R www.brokenbonezrecords.com | |
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I don’t really see anything offensive about this release, except maybe the big thank you to “GOD.” That’s not really offensive, though, just one of my pet peeves. This is a young Texas band in the Street Punk / Oi vein. Absolutely nothing original or even particularly catchy or well-played. Can’t be too hard on them, though, since they are obviously just young kids still entangled in punk rock clichés. - Ben
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Brutal Knights “Feast of Shame” www.derangedrecords.com | |
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A Punk Rock Renaissance must be going on in Toronto, that enchanted land whose brief but fruitful growing season has sprouted the likes of Career Suicide and Fucked Up. Perhaps not as frenzied as Career Suicide or as iconoclastic as Fucked Up, the Brutal Knights wed classic hardcore punk with the more indolent strains of garage punk (Jay Reatard even mixed the album), and they do it so well nobody will be protesting this mixed marriage. What is especially endearing about them is a virulent lyrical nihilism delivered with an off-the-cuff silliness that often rises to a sort of sarcastic retarded genius. “Government Is Asshole” begins with the loudly defiant proclamation: “Fuck you, I buy sushi with my welfare money!” then explodes into a third grade tirade against government making “cool things illegal.” Elsewhere they boast of their “Extreme Lifestyle” where they wake up in the morning and use wasabe toothpaste, or of having a website on the aptly titled “We Have a Website” (which at the time of this writing does not work!). There is too much funny stuff here to go through all the songs, but suffice to say I love this CD, both sonically and conceptually. In an age rife with Information Overload, the Brutal Knights serve up the perfect enema for those fed up with the world in general and want to unplug, air out, and just plain rock’n’roll. - Ben
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Bulemics “…Still Too Young To Care” www.scareyrecords.com | |
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Listening to this CD will make you want to get drunk, snort a line of coke out of a prostitute’s ass crack, jerk off on your neighbor’s dog, bludgeon a paraplegic with a crucifix, or some other demented and/or evil act. The Bulemics from Austin have been assaulting crowds for over ten years now, and here you can taste 25 songs worth of their vile spunk. It is trashy hateful scum punk that fans of the Dwarves, Mentors, GG Allin, Antiseen, et al will enjoy. As far as that “shock” genre goes, these guys situate themselves toward the top with some musical chops to carry the lyrical odes to bad taste. Funnier songs about being a crack baby or “Horny for Evil” strike me better than the ones about women getting abducted and killed in snuff films or killing themselves after being used up in the porn scene. I guess I am too jaded to be shocked by such meager audacity, and too mentally stable to be fascinated by that stuff. This package also includes a DVD of band videos. - Ben
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Busy Signals S/T CD www.dirtnaprecs.com | |
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I had just got home from being blown away by these guys at Gonerfest in Memphis and found their CD in my mail pile. After giving high fives to all my imaginary friends in the living room, I ran and put it on. Not disappointing. The Busy Signals sound like they could have been part of the original wave of punk bands, but not as a carbon copy. No, this feels like something important was left unsaid back then, and now it is being articulated. Their songs will jolt you out of your cynical stupor with high voltage hooks and a hot pulse beating against your speakers. Analucia’s vocals feel like a perfectly natural fit, as she’s confident enough to convey attitude and melody without being histrionic or over-affected. Me and my imaginary friends will listen to this again for sure. - Ben
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Calabrese “The Traveling Vampire Show” www.spookshowrecords.com | |
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I saw these guys several months ago and felt they hammered every rock’n’roll cliché in existence, from their “how’s everybody doing tonight… I can’t hear you!” crowd banter to their leather jackets and spin moves. The drummer was over the top obnoxious, often standing up and twirling his sticks in classic rock star poses, and in general they all, much like their bouncy younger crowd, seemed to really think they were hot shit. I guess in a very literal way, I’d agree. Musically, they tirelessly pounded out the generic horror punk pabulum chock full of “whoa-ohs,” coffins and vampires. It’s not that I hate all horror punk (see Hex Dispensers), but most of the time one band blends into the next with unimaginative lyrics and carbon copy choruses, coming off as lackluster Misfits tributes, albeit this one mixes in some Tiger Army. Sure, these guys have all the right moves and looks, but I’d prefer that they colored more outside the genre lines than stayed tucked away safe inside them. Right down to the sterile production on this poppy cheese platter, I think this is aimed at 14 year-old girl demographic. I hate being so hard on a band, but it just feels forced, phony, and banal to me. - Ben
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Candygram for Mongo “The Red Pill” www.candygramformongo.com | |
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If you could distill all the qualities I don’t like about music into one band you’d get this. You know how at some point in history whitebread guitar slingers started listening to Clapton records and figured they knew the blues, but entirely missed the point and soul of it? This is the punk rock equivalent. It comes off with no real understanding or background beyond the very surface level of the genre, has strikingly stupid lyrics, and seems like some middle-class dudes engineering tunes to make it in the biz. I am sure they are probably very swell people, though. – Ben
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Career Suicide “Attempted Suicide” www.derangedrecords.com | |
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A couple years ago a friend of mine told me that Career Suicide does 80’s hardcore better than it was done in the 80’s. That stuck with me because he has been going to hardcore shows and collecting records since the early 80’s and probably knows more about the genre than anyone I know. While I can’t claim such a vast background in the genre, I can say that this CD is perhaps their best to date, not only lighting up songs with more energy than the Hoover Dam, but also flagging them with hooks and melodies that keep things from being too overwhelming. Every time I listen to this my adrenal gland punches through my torso and I want to jump out of my skin. What they hell else could you ask for in a hardcore punk band? - Ben
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Caterpillar Tracks “Scrape the Summer” www.phratryrecords.com | |
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These guys play brainy post-punk/art rock that deftly plods through minimalist arrangements borne of anxiety and frustration. Not a light listen, but rewarding in its own way. Something about it just isn’t clicking for me, though. - Ben
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Cathouse Thumpers S/T CD myspace.com/cathousethumpers | |
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While on the outset these guys bring to mind the Stray Cats, the guitarist has a bit of his own flair that I really like. They also have a little jazz influence and really expert playing all around. There are umpteen million bands doing this kind of music, but the Cathouse Thumpers do it a little better than most. I enjoyed it. - Ben
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Charming Snakes “Ammunition” www.dirtnaprecs.com | |
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I don’t have too much of a frame of reference for this band’s sound, but it definitely hints of some Sonic Youth albums in their collection. They aren’t that simple to describe, though. There are elements of garage and pop twisted into a distorted ball of crossed lines and hooks. The effect is a mind-altering mass of songs, at once flowing and disjointed. Kinda like riding the subway at 3am after a night drinking, getting jarred in all directions while still comfortably moving forward. This isn’t something I’d put on to rock out to, but it provides nice atmosphere while you check your e-mail or completely zone out on a long drive while you think about other stuff. I guess they are appropriately named, because they slither into your subconscious and charm you subliminally. In short, it drones on, but in a mostly good way. - BL
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Chelsea Smiles “Thirty Six Hours Later” www.acetate.com | |
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With such an odd band name, I was not sure what to expect. This is glamish arena rock featuring an ex-member of D-Generation, Murphy’s Law, Danzig, and Motorhead. Lots of guitar riffs and a big sound that lies somewhere in that well-treaded area between Kiss and the New York Dolls. It is definitely not hard on the ears, but doesn’t really bowl me over either. Nothing is overtly bad about it, but it just kind of rolls off your back. – Ben
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Chinese Happy “Bear Hands” www.chinesehapy.com | |
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Dumpster-diving, bike-riding DIY Pop Punk with horrible vocals and music that rears a little bit of hardcore influence on one track, and on many other songs can sound like the worst band at the coffee house. While I am probably really close to them on social issues, they come off a little more hippie than even I, a vegetarian Marxist environmentalist, am comfortable with. I also do not like their music at all. - Ben
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Cola Wars “Red Flag Day” www.colawars.net | |
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Mellow yet wordy indie pop that just sounds smug to me. It’s weird how something so fluffy soft can be so grating on the nerves. - Ben
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The Compulsions “Laughter From Below” www.thecompulsionsnyc.com | |
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So this is what you get when you mix the New York Dolls with Lynyrd Skynyrd, which are the two most applicable bands on their press sheet. It’s not a painful listen at all, but pretty slow and doesn’t really hook me. Comes and goes without making much of a fuss. - Ben
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The Condors “Wait For It” www.rankoutsiderrecords.com | |
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Powerpop isn’t really a genre I’ve gone deep into, but these guys seem like they could stay afloat in it. Most songs are too poppy for my tastes. All the edges are sanded down and the melodies never broke my skin. You can tell this is an older band with a slight mod feel, and I respect what they do, but they just don’t stand out for me. - Ben
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Country Club “Friends Don’t Make Forearms” EP www.countryclubnyc.com | |
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This 6-piece NY band reminds me somewhat of Faith No More with a horn section, or Tucson’s Chango Malo. Actually, the singer’s voice sometimes reminds me of Steven Tyler, other times of Sweet. The arrangements are not run-of-the-mill, incorporating some weird 70’s rock opera and experimental jazz vibe into the hard rock. Best song is easily “Pretty Little Suicide.” Overall, it’s not rocketing me into ecstasy by a long shot, but I can respect if this happens to be your thing. - BL
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Crackwhore Self-Titled CD www.turkeyneck.com.au | |
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Female-fronted punk band from Australia with a sort of 80’s hard rock bent. It’s not breaking any molds by a long shot, but it’s not bad. They seem young and might get more interesting later on. - Ben
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The Daily Void “Identification Code 5271-4984953784-06564” www.dead-beat-records.com | |
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The Functional Blackouts are no more, but ex-members have stepped up to fill that Daily Void with the unnerving sounds of a bleak future beset with alienation and the parasitic peristalsis of a consumptive society in spasmodic decline. Slivers of shrapnel stick in your skin as you bask under their dark clouds, but though the music is oppressive and struggles to hold back a cacophony of sensory chaos, they do manage to let through just the right amount of jarring luminescence to make this disc play like the defiant blood-cry of a crushed civilization charging with grinding teeth into unmapped geographies of the damaged psyche. The unbearable lightness of being gains weight in this existential quagmire of flesh bruised by the brutal fists of frayed consciousness. Somehow the aesthetics of hopeless oblivion hold anesthetic properties and make this band an agonizing delight with more depth and import than the myriad of other eyes staring back through the abyss. - Ben
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Daze “Slow Down to Speed Up…” www.lividrecords.com | |
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This Swiss band sounds a lot like Nirvana. Very grunge influenced. Are you still reading this? - Ben
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Dead City Shakers “Ship of Beggars” www.zeroyouthrecords.com | |
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Street Punk commingles with Psychobilly and Country on this album by a relatively new band from Dallas. On the heavier songs the guitars have a hefty metal tone, while elsewhere they are more clean and reverby. They have an upright bass and in general the songs are mid tempo or slower. The vocals remind me of a modern Oi band, and the lyrics have a sort of skinhead gone Psychobilly feel to them. Though they sometimes come off a little plain, they do seem earnest, especially on songs like “Cliff’s Song,” which simply tells the story of a man’s life whom the singer admired and learned from. It doesn’t have any descriptive or memorable lines, instead just a straightforward outline of a life followed by general motivational platitudes. In creative writing they’d say he tells instead of showing, but being in a rock’n’roll band isn’t creative writing, and I reckon merely writing about something meaningful puts them above a lot of what is out there. In general, this CD is like a wall of flash in a tattoo shop come to life. It’s all the expected, usual stuff, but on the skin it takes on more of a personal aspect. The overall mood of the album evokes a somber atmosphere of disenchantment, regret, anger, and sadness… like a barroom theme park. While there are aspects to this CD I do like, the music is pretty boring and I typically dislike that guttural vocal style although they can work in some situations (Nabat is the only one that springs instantly to mind), they sound pretty bad to me here. - Ben
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Dead Hookers “The Burial / The Rebirth” www.dead-beat-records.com | |
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I didn’t have high hopes for a band called the Dead Hookers, but damn if I am not surprisingly captivated by this, and commissioned with the daunting task of trying to describe the alternately cascading and crunching sounds that are currently sweetly beating upon my eardrums. They take a garage and punk base, drop in some cross-eyed psychedelic transcendentalism, then jab, poke, and rub in some earthy pragmatics. The resulting muddy paradox packs together nicely without testing the limits of your patience as they struggle to keep the intensity and intrigue in proper balance. Oftentimes it is a noisy and challenging listen, but the payoffs are there for the taking. If you can picture a race of subterranean mole men surfacing through the forest soil and dry leaves as the sun oranges the sky at dusk, this is the music they might have playing on their ipods. - Ben
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Demon’s Claws “Satan’s Little Pet Pig” www.intheredrecords.com | |
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I was a fan of the Demon’s Claws debut album, but this one has jumped ahead light years. They’ve emerged from the workshop with every aspect improved, from the vocals to the overall production, and crudely assembled them into a jangly masterpiece of garagedelic punk architecture. A labyrinth of ethereal influences, voices pulse through hallways with faded wallpaper throats while strange whiffs of the 1880’s waft through the creaky floorboards in this nonsensical revisioning of the 1960’s through an Appalachian kaleidoscope. A fun listen. - Ben
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Derita Sisters “Get Off My Property!” www.trash2001.de | |
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Lighthearted German punk band with funny lyrics about soul patches, Girls Gone Wild, and Gillian Anderson. While they have a few decent tracks, they basically play generic punk without too many memorable hooks. Also, they are older gentlemen who seem to have been playing music for a long time, and are not sisters. It’s mostly kind of humdrum, lacking that certain spark to really light things up, but it’s not god-awful either. - Ben
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The Destroyed “Russian Roulette” www.thedestroyed.com | |
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The Destroyed date back to 1977, but have become most active in the last few years. Consisting of J.D. Jackson on guitar and Bert Switzer on drums, the first thing you notice is Bert’s style of drumming. At first it seems like a mess of fills and accents, then as you get further into it, it seems like there’s intentionality behind it. It is hard to tell whether he’s a jazz-level maverick musician deconstructing punk rock, or if he is a 50 year old burnout with A.D.D. Possibly both. The guitars provide a coarse texture to the songs, while the vocals leave a snotty trail for your wild hike through this strange soundscape. It’s definitely a listen for those more adventuresome with their musical affinities, but I think only its peculiarity keeps it from falling into the abyss as it perches precariously on the edge of Suck Canyon. - Ben
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Destructors 666 “Many Were Killed, Few Were Chosen” www.destructors666.com | |
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Vocally, they remind me of Venom, but the music melds mid-tempo British street punk with some 70’s rock and metal overtones. I’m sure that description gags a few people, but it’s actually not bad. I like this album better than what I heard for them on a split CD a while ago. There is an anthemic feel, thick guitars, and a real good vibe. I’m enjoying this ride, and recommend taking it for a spin. - Ben
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D.E.K. “Right Now in a Minute” www.brokenbonezrecords.com | |
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Standard issue punk oscillating between pop and hardcore influences and including lots of sound bytes between songs. I can’t really think of anything to say about it. I guess that says it all. - Ben
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Dicemen “A Thing Called Rock’n’Roll” www.suburban.nl | |
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When I heard some early Dicemen, I thought they were pretty much psychobilly, but nowadays I think they’ve really expanded upon that foundation. This CD sounds like a band that would fit in perfectly at the Heavy Rebel weekender in North Carolina, as they successfully saddle rockabilly influences astride a hard southern hair metal sound. You close your eyes and you can just see the cans of PBR flying through the air. The playing is superb and there is a nice upbeat energy here. The choice to cover “Rockabilly Boogie” is a little too predictable but still easy on the ears, however the cover Hank III’s “Go Fuck You”misses the mark a bit. I also prefer the old version of their original tune “Kicked in the Teeth.” The new one just lacks the muscle of the older recording, and the new style of less aggressive vocals doesn’t really fit. That said, many of the songs do hit me the right way, and I am glad to hear this band from the Netherlands deviate a little more than their peers from the typical psychobilly prototype. – BL
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Die Hunns “You Rot Me” www.volcoment.com | |
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Having not heard any previous Hunns output, I had no real expectations other than a mild curiosity to see how this would differ from Duane Peters’ other band, The U.S. Bombs. The difference is pretty immense. It is a very slow tempo album with a bit of Nick Cave-ishness to the proceedings. There is a slight 70’s rock and proto-punk flavoring, as well as an occasional dash of Velvet Underground. Obviously Peters got tired of bashing out the street punk he’s known for, and along with Corey Parks (Nashville Pussy), Zander Schloss (Weirdos, Circle Jerks), and Nate Shaw (The Skulls), has branched out and proffered something with a little more substance. The album as a whole is hit and miss for me, but still more interesting than I expected. – Ben
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Drunk By Six “Battered Souls” www.buzzkillrecords.com | |
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I shouldn’t like this, but I do. They play poppy street punk with lots of whoah-ohs, similar to a million other bands. However, they do it with just a little more enthusiasm than the average pack of schlubs. Their semi-sarcastic theme song claims “we don’t care about your politics, we just wanna be drunk by six,” which is happily contradicted three songs later with “Religious Right, Religious Wrong,” a song that warms the bleeding heart of this godless lefty. They even have a song about the Enola Gay, which was the plane that dropped the first atomic bomb. It has been a while since I heard a punk song about nuclear anxiety. I think it’s gonna come back in a big way. - Ben
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Electric Frankenstein “Burn Bright, Burn Fast” www.tkorecords.com | |
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More rock’n’roll punk from these guys who have about one million records and have been around since the Pleistocene. It is kind of like Dead Boys mixed with 80’s arena rock. Not awful to listen to, but I’ve never really flipped my wig over these guys. - Ben
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The Ergs! “Upstairs/Downstairs” www.dirtnaprecs.com | |
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The buzz around this band is huge, and by people whose tastes I respect. On the first listen, though, I didn’t really get it. The Ergs! play pop punk that after a couple listens I am starting to warm to slightly more. Musical aptitude aside, they seem like lovable nerds who (along with geeks, losers, and fuck-ups) naturally always make the best punk rock. Their lyrics have an intelligent silliness coupled with an earnestness just this side of emo. “Stinking of Whiskey Blues” is actually a really good acoustic country song, but for the album as a whole I really don’t care for the whiny bubblegum vocals. I can kind of see what everyone else is smitten with, but I’m just not feeling the love myself. - Ben
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The Feelers “Learn to Hate the Feelers” www.dead-beat-records.com | |
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Following the instructions of the album’s title proves to be difficult task. In fact, I think I’m in love with the Feelers, in the least gay way possible of course (not that there’s anything wrong with that, mind you). It’s more of a dysfunctional sort of reluctant love: the kind a battered wife has for her fat husband. This thing rips like a slam-dancing pirate with two hook hands (of course noting that amputation is sad, and there are many fine, upstanding pirates). It hits meaner than your dad after two sixes and lifetime of regret (not that child abuse is ever funny... except maybe if the kid really deserves it). Anyway, The Feelers are from way down South (Columbus, Ohio), and prove to be one of our state’s finer assets. The vocals may take a little getting used to, coming off like the muffled rantings of madman, but after a few listens the disc got in my head space and re-arranged the furniture. It’s edgy punk rock with jangly garage guitars hitting the minor chords in major ways. Next time I hear some idiot suggest that we Ohioans inhabit some forsaken land cut off from coolness by cornfields and cattle, I’ll put this CD on at an ungodly volume, unzip my pants, and command them to suck on my inflated nutsack. – BL
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Filthy 42s “Positively South Jersey” www.boottohead.com | |
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Ever listen to something that has a whole pile of decent ingredients yet doesn’t cook up a very satisfying ear candy? Nothing awful here, but it’s not taking me to Thrill City on the Love Train where I can plunge myself into new and exotic pleasures. Perhaps the production is a little plain and polished to death, or maybe the punk’n’roll with poppy but decidedly un-catchy choruses leaves me clicking forward. While I’m not looking for every band to be avante garde purveyors of a new musical epoch, these guys still seem really pedestrian on a highway crowded with faster traffic. - Ben
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The Flapjacks “Move To Mars” www.lastchancerecords.net/ | |
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Well-played Rockabilly in its various permutations with the requisite instrumentals. It won’t change your life or make you a more sensitive lover, but there’s worse ways to spend your time. - Ben
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FM Bats “Everybody Out… Shark in the Water” www.vinyldogrecords.com | |
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I am really digging this 6-song EP, but I have no idea how to describe what it sounds like. It features the singer from Le Shok and Neon King Kong, which might help a bit. I’d say this is pretty damned original sounding stuff, but maybe I just don’t have the proper frame of reference to pin down their influences. It isn’t very fast or laden with hooks, but something about it is fascinating. Definitely not going to be everyone’s cup of pee, but it filtered through my kidneys just fine. It has an off-kilter sort of swagger, distorted vocals, and drunken guitars that grate on you in endearing ways. The result is eccentric and creative without seeming artsy or contrived. Unlike many discs where you get all the songs have to offer on the first listen, the FM Bats get better and better each time. - BL
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Forbidden Tigers “Magnetic Problems” www.dead-beat-records.com | |
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The Black Lips, Live Fast Die, Demon’s Claws, Spaceshits, and the Gories may be some of the closer relatives of this young band, but that’s just to give you a musical zip code. These Nebraska natives definitely have their own address in the garage rock kingdom. Immensely satisfying from start to finish, this album jangles, jerks, and jolts its tangled guitars over top of rhythms that smash against auditory limits and vocals snarling with a sardonic drawl. Forbidden Tigers likely stem from the roots of a voracious musical nerdiness wherein countless hours were consumed with rock’n’roll studies until it poured effortlessly from their pores without an ounce of trite amateurism. If this don’t cause some lascivious movements down below, you may need to get some little blue pills. - Ben
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Forty Marshas S/T CD www.beatville.com | |
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This is an odd experimental album conceived of by the drummer of the Goo Goo Dolls and performed with all kinds of different musicians he knows. Some tracks are more like soundscapes, while others are rock or even metal. It’s kind of like how Mr. Bungle took genre busting cues from John Zorn, but this isn’t as schizophrenically bizarre, it just has weird variation between tracks. This eclectic soup has some really tasty bits, some mystery chunks that I’m unsure of, and some stuff I’d just rather not taste. - Ben
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Functional Blackouts “Very Best of the Monkees” www.dead-beat-records.com | |
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The first time I saw these guys was in Chicago at the day show for one of the Horizontal Action Blackout weekends. It was hot as hell in this weird old automotive garage or something. Beer was not going down easy. I felt tired and uncomfortable. I never heard the Functional Blackouts before, and when they came on my body transformed from a sad sack of sullen crap into a twitching carcass undulating under 10,000 volts of oppressive psychic power jolting out from a jagged heap of corrupted mental circuitry. It was a sonic stabbing of disgruntled hate-filled truth so ominous and correct I shuddered with orgasm in the blissful doom of humanity. This CD collects 18 tracks of out-of-print 7”s, unreleased versions of songs, and even the final three songs they recorded before disbanding. Mandatory listening for all non-pussies. - Ben
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Functional Blackouts “The Severed Tongue Speaks for Everyone” www.dead-beat-records.com | |
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A word that comes up a lot with these guys is “nihilism,” and that’s because they gouge out impatient and tense angst-flavored punk rock and swirl it around inside a chaotic vat of noise and mucous. Intelligent, sleazy, scary, and honest, this is their second full-length originally released on vinyl by Criminal IQ. It’s not for people who like safe and sanitized prefab mind rot. It’s like an enema for the banal crap that usually ends up in my review pile. - Ben
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The Gee Strings “A Bunch of Bugs” www.dead-beat-records.com | |
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Right off the bat these guys reminded me of the Stitches, which is weird because this German band has a female singer (but then again, I thought Mike Lohrman sounded like a girl on their early stuff). Anyway, there is a great snotty punk rock song setting things off, followed up with some more great (mostly) New York 70’s-inspired punk rock’n’roll flexing lots of guitar muscle and having plenty of hooks to snag you with. There is a cover of the great Nervous Eaters song, “Just Head,” which is in immediate danger of being overdone, but the Gee Strings still manage to charm their way through it. This is one of those CDs that are hard not to like. - Ben
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The Ghouls “Stand Alone” www.sosrecords.us | |
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Take your favorite spikey-haired street punk band from the late 90’s, splice in some horror punk DNA, and something like these Ghouls will slither from your Petri dish. There’s not very much variation between the lackluster songs, but at least they are fast. In the end, though, nothing really stands out, except maybe how bad the singer is. - Ben
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Goodnight Loving “Crooked Lake” www.dustymedical.com | |
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From their name, I felt pretty leery about listening to this CD. I should know by now not to judge a band by their name. I had read or heard nothing of Goodnight Loving before popping this in for review, so when the first song, “Another Foggy Yesterday,” hit me I was totally unprepared to fall in love. Then I remembered that I DID see them at Gonerfest just a few months ago and wasn’t really moved by them. Maybe it was an off night or bad sound, because I am really enjoying this CD a lot. They play a wistful sort of alt-country forged with a garage rock ethos and just the right amount of upbeat resilience to stave off gloominess. The lyrics come out unpretentiously artful, and the mood captures the dichotomy of desperation and sanguinity in genuine proportions. This is the young Milwaukee band’s second full-length, with their first produced by Greg Cartwright (Oblivians, Reigning Sound). “Crooked Lake,” however, was recorded in a secluded cabin in northern Wisconsin, and it’s not hard to imagine how the isolated locale seeped into the songwriting and production. It just sounds natural, and that’s a welcome thing as the rest of the world becomes more detached and artificial. - Ben
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The Goosebumps “The Story of Butch” www.anthologyrecords.com | |
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There are only two tracks on this instrumental CD, but both are nearly 15 minutes each. It seems like a conceptual album intending to connote a Western movie soundtrack. The first part has a sparse mariachi feel, while the second builds from an arid southwestern jazz vibe into a heavy metal opus. Interesting. – Ben
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Hank Und Die Shakers On Christmas Eve (I’m Gonna Kill My Neighbors) www.speedchicken.de | |
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This is a one-song CD-R by Hank Ockmonic from Speed Chicken out of Germany. It’s a great acoustic ditty that makes me smile… especial the music greeting card solo. - Ben
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Haunted George “Bone Hauler” www.dead-beat-records.com | |
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Haunted George is a one-man band that dwells in eerie isolation in the desert spaces of Southern California and conjures tunes from the depleted ores beneath his feet as a scratchy sacrament to appease his inner demons. “Bone Hauler” transforms your stereo into a dusty jukebox echoing in an abandoned bar where sunlight comes in slices through the boarded windows and ghosts of the forgotten mining town still slake their dry throats and nagging regrets in endless communion with empty liquor bottles. It’s a sound both warped and wonderful, worth having in your collection of music and/or macabre things. - Ben
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Heavy Trash Self-titled www.yeproc.com | |
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I just read a review of this album that complained of too much reverb, twang, and pedal steel. First, I don’t think there is that much reverb, and I like a good dose of reverb anyway. Second, hating twang is what urban snobs do to distance themselves from the backwards rural simpletons that they enjoy stereotyping and despising. Third, how can you dislike pedal steel? It’s… it’s… it’s just un-American. Anyway, I think this album isn’t too bad. It’s a collaboration of Jon Spencer (Blues Explosion) and Verta-Ray (Speedball Baby). While admittedly not great or monumental, there are some quality moments. The strange thing is how Jon Spencer’s voice, which always struck me as a drunken Elvis impersonator, doesn’t feel quite natural in a more rockabilly setting. To the negative, a few of the songs lack the spark of life, the hooks and rhythms come off bland and uninspired in a few places, and his voice almost seems to mock the proceedings on what could’ve been transcendent, dark country songs. All those gripes make it sound like this will be terrible, but it is not. It is me being hyper-critical. A few songs I wouldn’t mind putting on a comp, and some others I would let play through if I caught them on the radio. The funny thing is, what the other reviewer thought worked against this album, I thought were some of the better aspects of it. - BL
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Hellbillys “Blood Trilogy Vol. II” www.splitsevenrecords.com | |
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Chewing their way through the West Coast Psychobilly scene since 1989 (which is technically before there was much of a psychobilly scene there), the Hellbillys continue to shed innocent blood with this their newest offering. If you know to expect a huge metal influence, you will not be disappointed. Since I grew up listening to 80's metal (read: not hair metal), I can relate. This fast and heavy with hardly a twinge of rockabilly, but who cares? Unlike most of the slack-ass metal out there, this has some real balls to it. Plus the vocals aren't trying too hard to be all creature-like, preferring a more punk rock GBH type of bite. Hell, there is even a song with a classical guitar intro, and the disc ends with "You & Me and the Devil Makes 3," clearly engaging the listener in an unholy trinity that would make Tipper Gore piss her panties. - BL
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Hex Dispensers Self-Titled www.aliensnatch.com | |
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The guitars and bass weave together tightly and blanket you in a heavy wool shroud while the vocals sweat through in drippy melodies, arms flailing with all the right hooks. At times they remind me of a rough-hewn and darker take on the Ramones clouded by shades of horror punk as the singer’s voice echoes off basement walls. I am very much a fan of this, and have been listening to the CD compulsively since I got it. Perfect listening for the ride home from the bar when street lights blur together and shadows are menacing. - Ben
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High Tension Wires “Midnight Cashier” www.dirtnaprecs.com | |
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The second CD of garagy pop punk by members of The Marked Men, The Reds, and Riverboat Gamblers. Though not as essential as the aforementioned bands, or as good as their first, it is still very kind to the eardrums. – Ben
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The Histrioniks "About this Girl" Band Site | |
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Sugary pop punk/indie rock with female vocals. Sorry, but this does absolutely nothing for me. It’s well produced, and if you’re a fan of the style you might enjoy it. But to be honest, there’s already a lot of bands out there who sound like this, and there wasn’t anything about The Histrioniks that distinguished them from similar stuff that I’ve heard before. - Bob Ignizio
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Hudson Falcons “Singles Collection: 1997-2002” www.hudsonfalcons.com | |
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Listening to this took me back a few years when we’d go see these guys every time they came through. It still sounds like good times and good friends that I never see anymore, but that aside, you’d be hard pressed to find a better, not to mention more sincere, blue collar rock’n’roll band circulating conspicuously through the largely mediocre street punk scene. There are a few covers on here including The Stones, Johnny Thunders, Chuck Berry, and Bruce Springsteen, as well as tons of memorable originals touting righteous political causes or just rocking the hell out. Grab one of these if you missed the original vinyl. - Ben
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The Illustrated “Alphabaggage” www.lividrecords.com | |
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The Illustrated are described as playing avante-punk influenced by improvisational jazz. When they came on, the first song sounded like pop punk mixed with quirky 90’s alternative rock and the singer was awful. Really, just unpleasant. I think every city has a band like this, where they are decent musicians trying to fuse jazz, funk, punk, and whatever else into a sort of vapid concoction that appeals to pretentious college kids. It’s just too precious, and generally about as exciting as cutting your toenails. The blues tune and a couple of the cinematic instrumental pieces did reach the snowy summit of tolerability, though. Bless ‘em for trying to do something different, as I too grow tired of rehashed bullshit over and over, but this just didn’t appeal to me at all. It actually pissed me off. When I got to “Mud Inc.” I seriously thought of thrusting a kitchen knife through my sternum deep into my chest cavity. Then when the sonically torturous “Don’t Be Afraid” came on next, I grew insane with rage and realized that my suicide is exactly what these purveyors of wickedness wanted. This is evil, evil, evil stuff. Some of the worst shit I have ever heard is on here. I really wanted to be nice at first, but this just seems like it comes from pompous musicians who probably think they are creating transcendent music, and when people don’t like it that’s because they just don’t “get it.” Nope. Sorry, it just sucks. I actually think this is a portal to hell, and will burying the dismembered CD on the four corners of the earth, safe from the reaches of man’s mortal hands. - Ben
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The Intellectuals “Invisible is the Best” www.dead-beat-records.com | |
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Fun, trashy garage from Rome that has dual male/female vocals, dumpster blues-punk guitar chops, throbbing organs, and an animal magnetism that will pull you ever closer to the speakers with your zipper down. The more I am listening to this, the more I want to build a solid future with it and love it forever and ever. I don’t know if that’s legal in Texas. – Ben
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Invisible Surfers 2 CD-Rs myspace.com/invisiblesurfers | |
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Higher_ups@yahoo.gr I am not sure what the two CD-Rs I received by this Greek band represent. I think some of it is culled from past releases, and some is not-yet-released material. At any rate, it is pretty decent instrumental surf music worthy of mention. The recordings range in quality, and a couple songs had major glitches. I’m guessing a lot of these songs are originals, while the covers that I recognized ranged from predictable (but enjoyable), to somewhat less expected. The execution is quite good, and the moods range from heavy and dark to bright and breezy. While they don’t quite stand apart from the pack, they are certainly towards the front. I’ll be interested to see where they go from here. – BL
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Ira “The Body and the Soul” www.gokartrecords.de | |
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I am not too well-informed on the bands these guys are compared to (Isis, Neurosis, Cave In), but to me this has ambient soundscapes mixed with metalish melodic nü hardcore. The vocals are what put me off the most, being very indie-rockish. There are aspects that I sort of like, usually the more ethereal elements since I do enjoy some ambient trance and psychedelic music, but these songs get really monotonous and drone on and on. It can really grate on your nerves more often than carry you away in a pleasant mind-bending delirium. - Ben
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Irish Brothers “Freedom is a Lonely Thing” www.irishbrothers.net | |
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The Irish Brothers capably craft pop songs using punk and roots rock as the building blocks. The problem arises in the delivery, which seems a little lacksidasical and polished. I hear strong musicianship, some nice guitarwork and good melodies, but I just don’t get the energy or attitude… especially on the Dead Boys cover (which is “Sonic Reducer,” of course). The drums throughout feel a little sluggish, and while the singer hits the notes and isn’t bad, his voice feels flat and disagreeable to me. Overall you’d guess them to be middle-aged, which is fine because I am too, but rock’n’roll needs a bit more fire under its ass. Reviews like this are tough because you can tell they spent some time writing thoughtful songs that rise above a lot of what’s out there, but it just doesn’t fully connect with me. - Ben
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Jeff Coffey “Long Way Home” www.jeffcoffey.com | |
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Holy crap, I wonder why someone would send this to us? This is soft rock for middle-aged Anglo housewives who have turned to Christ to help them with life’s daily challenges. I bet there would be a special thanks to God inside, and lo and behold there was. Enjoyment is inversely proportional to IQ. - Ben
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Jerry King & The Rivertown Ramblers “Out of This World” www.jerrykingandtherivertownramblers.com | |
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Sometimes I am in the mood for traditional rockabilly done well, and these cats to the south do just that (that was the first and last time I will ever use the term “cat” to refer to a bipedal species, sorry I got hep with the jive lingo daddy-o). However, nothing is really standing out for me. It is pretty solid, with many decent songs performed well, but I’ll probably only use it for background as I do some work around the house. The best song is the final track, a live cover of a Wildfire Willy & the Ramblers song. It has a little more liveliness. Worst track is a tedious ballad called “I Miss the Ring.” If you like your rockabilly unaffected by the modern world, then you could do much worse. – BL
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Judder and the Jack Rabbits 3-song Demo myspace.com/judderandthejackrabbits | |
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This is a young British Psychobilly band that seeks to marry that genre with some Hardcore Punk influence. It is pretty standard 3-chord punk stuff without any real memorable hooks, nor a great sense of speed or urgency. I like the idea, though, and with time they might get better and progress into something amazing. – Ben
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Judder and the Jack Rabbits “All In” www.cherryred.co.uk | |
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It has been over a year since I reviewed their demo, and here’s a full-length. The sound has matured and obviously been recorded better, but I still don’t care for it. The vocals yowl on and on in a tone deaf manner, lyrics are inane (although I do like “Lactating Lover”), and the music generally isn’t that interesting, with hardcore breakdowns done psychobilly style being their main innovation. Most of the songs sound the same to me, though. It just doesn’t work on my ears, and I’ll probably never listen to this again. They do seem like young kids having a laugh, though, so good on ‘em. - Ben
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Karloff "Self-Made Monsters" www.kultkarloff.com | |
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Are you tired of the same old Misfits-esque, zombie psycho bands that lack originality? If you answered 'yes' then I may have the band for you. Bizarre necro-rock performed by the unstoppable band from Scotland called Karloff. The music is weird, his voice is even weirder and it just adds to the listening delight. These fellas have been called "Spook Metal", "Death ’n’ Roll" and even "Pumpkin Punk". They do an amazing cover of "Jezebel" as well as kick ass originals. If you don't get this music I cannot be held accountable for whatever fate may find you. This band has magical powers and your face may rot off in the middle of the night, just so you are aware. –Lisa
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K.T.P. “Rockers” www.zeroyouth.com | |
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Upbeat street punk rock’n’roll with group choruses from this Lawrence, Kansas, band. You know the drill… not reinventing the wheel, but not letting the air out of the tires either. Better than loads of other bands with the same mantra. - Ben
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Legend of Dutch Savage “All Will Be Good When I’m Good” EP www.legendofdutchsavage.com | |
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They play a light rock with occasional brief Motorheadish spurts. There is definitely classic rock influence and some of that sound that gets heaved under the Indie label. There was nothing here that demanded my attention or gave me pleasure. - Ben
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Little Fyodor “The Very Best of Little Fyodor’s Greatest Hits” www.discrimateaudio.com | |
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Apparently the maniacal geek Little Fyodor has been proffering his unique strain of troubled weirdness to the social outcasts of the world for over twenty years, yet this is the first time this particular dork has been exposed to his borderline personality. He seems to get a good chuckle about the bleakness of existence and revels in sad observations with silver linings or dismisses them with a quirky child-like resilience. Musically, he’s been compared to Zappa and Devo, and often strikes gold in that vein, or else gets distracted by his own inherent silliness. You may not need all 20 tracks in one sitting, but all in all, it’s an interesting listen worth encountering. – Ben
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Los Caminos “Bullets for Bread” www.loscaminosmusic.com | |
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Here’s an enjoyable instrumental rock band from Canada that plays well and pays attention to nuance and atmosphere. In a perfect world every store, restaurant, or municipal building you walk into would have stuff like this playing. “Bullets for Bread” isn’t wildly different than a lot of the instro stuff I own (I have a lot), but it definitely holds its own and has many shining moments like “Dark Sea,” which mists and flows with such redolence you can actually taste it in the back of your throat. - Ben
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Made For Chickens By Robots “The Wrong Brain” EP & “Momo Hokey” CD www.madeforchickensbyrobots.co.nr | |
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I really wish I would have found out about this guy before I pressed my One Man Band Compilation because this is so backwoods that it sprouted its own hallucinogenic fungus. It is an Australian OMB who plays a weirdo crippled blues with a herky-jerky jive budding not far from the Bob Log family tree, but resonating with its own euphoric pathologies. The stomp and hobble of Made For Chickens By Robots offers an oddly dissonant delirium issued forth from the muddy hands and biomechanical twitches of a truly cross-eyed savant. – Ben
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The Maharajas “In Pure Spite” www.lowimpact.nu | |
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Swedish garage rock with poppy choruses. I actually like the slower, more emotive songs better. Well-executed overall, but very choreographed and ultimately left me with a case of the shrugs. - Ben
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Mainline “Notice of Disconnection” www.mainlinerock.com | |
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These guys define their genre as “new school Southern California melodic rock metal tech punk.” No arguments here. If you would have asked me to describe what kind of music I do not like, I would have said those very words (alongside dumbass gangsta rap about bitches, hoes, and SUVs and idiotic modern country for braindead middle-class Republicans). This is music for wearing your baseball cap backwards to, bro. - Ben
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Mark Sultan “The Sultanic Verses” www.intheredrecords.com | |
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Why is this Mark Sultan and not the new BBQ album? Well, while there is some one man band stuff on here, he also has branched out and added overdubs, extra guitar tracks, and had friends play here and there. Also, while there remain elements of RnB and garage, he’s added some psychedelic elements too. The overall feel of this album is different, maybe a little less immediately catchy than a lot of his previous output, but still a worthwhile listen with plenty of great tracks. It’s just that the colossal peaks he’s achieved in the past cast a big shadow that’s hard to rise above. As with any artist this prolific, there will be some wonders and blunders, and I’m going to listen to this more and see how deeply we can fall in love. - Ben
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The Marauders S/T CD www.themarauderspa.com | |
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I’ve said before that the problem with a huge amount of rockabilly music is all the recycled riffs and predictably recurring themes cut and pasted together with lame 50’s lingo. Listen to The Marauders and you get a sense of what the genre could and should be. They craft songs about things in their lives that have meaning to them and aren’t pulled at random from the rockabilly play book. To me, the songs that make the biggest impact have feeling and soul. While this can be done on pensive songs filled with reproach and despair, it can also be accomplished on light-hearted and fun songs. The Marauders do both. It is easy to tell that they are putting something of themselves in the music, rather than just playing a part. It always intrigues me when people write off the entire rockabilly as a poser scene fueled by empty nostalgia, but have no problem adoring bands who hark back to 60’s soul and garage or 70’s punk and 80’s hardcore. I think it is a matter of aesthetic predisposition, and also whether the music is being cloned or mutated. While you will hear plenty of familiar elements in the Marauders’ music, instead of just plugging themselves into a genre, they bent and twisted it to fit them. This is their third full-length release and features their hitherto absent mantra, “We Are the Marauders,” written for them by Brian Setzer. Any true lover of rockabilly, and even those who’ve written it off as gone adrift in stagnant waters, will want to check out this latest ripple in the gene pool. - Ben
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Media Dropout “Muddled” www.zeroyouthrecords.com | |
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At first I thought these guys sounded a WHOLE lot like Nirvana, which didn’t make sense to me because I thought the moratorium against grunge in the musical underground was still in effect. However, I do have a very small soft spot for it, so I didn’t break out into an itchy rash or ask God why bad things happen. They apparently are for fans of “The Melvins, Foo Fighters, Alice In Chains… and Silverchair.” Okay, Silverchair? Yep, I can hear that now. The Melvins also make sense. I somehow never heard the Foo Fighters, though. Anyway, they are okay, I suppose, if you miss this sort of self-loathing and drugged-up drudgery. Yet they don’t really come across as having their own identity, nor do they craft memorable songs. It all blends into a general malaise and I am left like Cobain, wondering what the point is. - Ben
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Thee Merry Widows “Revenge Served Cold” People Like You Records | |
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There’s no doubt that psychobilly and horror punk bands are a dime a dozen these days. But as with any crowded musical genre, there are always a few bands that stand out. Sometimes it’s by putting a new twist on the formula, other times it’s just plain good old fashioned talent and songwriting. Thee Merry Widows fall into that second category, delivering rockers like “Aileen and “Black Widow” and dark ballads like “Revenge” and “Deadly Kiss” with equal skill. Only “Grave Robbers From Outer Space” comes across as filler to my ears. Otherwise, Revenge Served Cold is a thoroughly enjoyable album packed with good musicianship, strong vocals, and solid songwriting. - Bob Ignizio
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Miss 45 Self-Titled EP www.notalentrec.com | |
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This band’s press sheet is hilarious. Written by an international vagabond and former foreign legionnaire over at the ironically named No Talent Records, it boasts this Stockholm band to be more wondrous than his mountaineering in the Himalayas and more memorable than his dinners with the cannibal tribes of the Polynesian Islands. High praise indeed! He further notes that they are “the wet dream of every real rock & roll fan,” and have put their influences to shame. Influences cites include Johnny Thunders, New York Dolls, Rolling Stones, Beach Boys, Ramones, and most perplexingly: Frank Sinatra. I do like a press sheet that is willing to go all the way and not temper their descriptions with modesty or perspective. Actually, I took it to be a parody of the necessary evil that is a press sheet, and found it lovingly littered with rock & roll excesses, which in turn made me form a bond of kinship with the author, one Donovan Drax, who if that isn’t his real name I shall forever be disillusioned with the possibility of such a gentlemanly adventurer having such an apt title and will become inconsolably catatonic as assuredly as this here is a run-on sentence. Anyway, the music is decent if not overly memorable to my ears. They start a little more rocking than they end up, as the balance swings from more rock to more pop. There is a song called “(Everything is More Fun) When You’re High.” What about talking to policemen? - Ben
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Mofos “Six Pack Performance” www.garagepoprecords.com | |
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Having been a big fan for the Mofos’ previous outing, I was really looking forward to this CD. One of the things I really like about this band is the intense and edgy yet also evocative and mature songwriting. Whereas a lot of surf-influenced instro bands will hash out predictable archetypes for each song, or forego creativity altogether in their zest for tremolo picking and shreddin’ the gnar, the Mofos succeed in melding many diverse elements into their Noir-ish gestalt. You don’t just get another reiteration of basic themes or motifs to the point you already know where each song is going. Instead there is a complex interplay of light and shadows, and a depth to the waters that keeps them afloat where others sink. That said, however, for the most part this CD has less of the threshing momentum of their previous one, and its mood is even more stark and ponderous. While many tracks are slower, including a bleakly ominous dirge, they do still have strong cinematic traits and help propel the surf genre forward. It is not nearly as good as their last CD, though, which I think is somewhat due to the overall pacing of the album. – Ben
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The Mojomatics “Songs for Faraway Lovers” www.aliensnatch.com | |
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I am really enjoying this CD a lot. It’s like a chunk of golden goodness wrapped in wonderment and joy. The Mojomatics take cues from 60’s garage and pop, as well as blues and country, then melt them down in a crock pot and serve up a goulash that tastes at once strikingly familiar and yet oddly foreign. It’s like Shadows of Knight or The Standells sweating out an album with Bob Dylan at a Motor-Inn somewhere on the outskirts of New Orleans, but that’s not quite it either. Regardless, I like this more and more with every listen, and I’m sure it’ll get lots of highway miles on my drive from Texas to Alaska. If I were King of England I’d let them marry my eldest daughter. - Ben
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Monkey Son of a Donkey “Going Down” www.sshakingrecordss.com | |
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This one comes from Israel, sort of a noisy and dark garage metal. The vocals are guttural roars from some distant catacombs. The first track is called “Go Go Girls” with the lyrics, “Go Go girls with iron wheels Faster Pussycat Kill Kill!” But it sounds like pure evil and murder as it chugs along heavy, ominous, and dismal. What the hell? The booklet has pictures of a trashy strip club during the daylight hours with fat middle-aged guys walking by it. That’s kind of cool. The music is really lo-fi and sounds recorded in a big empty building with muffled vocals echoing off the walls. The song called “Ted Bundy” has the “Secret Agent Man” riff, and they do the most fucked version of “Good Golly Miss Molly” I’ve ever heard. I imagine these guys wearing black hoods with emotionally damaged fat girls on leashes. The press sheet says that they “upset radical feminist activists due to their misogynistic nature.” That cracks me up. Only the most radical feminist would fail to be wooed by “I’m gonna rape you, I’m gonna fuck until it hurts you, I’m gonna make you cry, eat shit and die.” I can’t say this was an enjoyable listen, but at least it was strange. - Ben
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Motorama “Dirt Track Specialist” www.lastchancerecords.net | |
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From the name and title I thought these guys would have a more conventional greaser punk style, but while they do fire up that Motorhead engine a little, the vocals are more dynamic and the arrangements have more complexity. They list Jesus Lizard and Nomeansno among their influences, and I think that really shows. Not just atypical, but damn good listening as well. - Ben
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Muddy River Nightmare Band “Who Will Be the Lucky Pierre?” www.lastchancerecords.net | |
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Drunken greaser punk played fast and chock full of extra carbs. I can’t tell if it’s because the last 20 things I’ve reviewed have sucked ass with hemorrhoids, but I am really appreciating this right now. - Ben
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The Mugshots “House of the Weirdos” www.mugshots.now.nu | |
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This Italian band threw me through a loop to describe. I think this would be best linked with the synth-goth or deathrock genres, both of which I hardly know anything about. Therefore, I am not sure if I’d be fully qualified to give one of those “they are good at what they do” comments, but it does sound like they are probably competent. It just isn’t my sort of thing at all. I would only listen to this again under threat of physical harm. The vocals actually reminded me of Faith No More a little bit and some of the more ethereal soundscapes were cool, but my favorite thing was the funny picture in the sleeve of goonie-looking guy with the hood acting all creepy. That has to be intentionally silly. – Ben
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Music From The Film “Playfully Abrasive” myspace.com/musicfromthefilm | |
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Having spent time since the 80’s in a variety of cassette-only noise bands, Gary Young has here assembled a little over an hour of his homemade sound experiments in which he plays glockenspiel, autoharp, Casios, chimes, toys, video games, bookends, banjos, turntables, ukeleles, horns, balloons, samples, and all manner of percussion. His long-time co-conspirator, Arthur Harrison, also adds some theremin and an “elaborate electronic circuit” called the “cacophonator,” which features “a group of 12 oscillators arguing amongst themselves.” The result is a fascinating parade of deranged ditties replicating the woozy effect of absinthe taken in a frontier saloon, poking at mutant babies through chicken wire with a wooden stick in the back of a rusty pick-up, or a soundtrack to watching rabies attack a dog’s brain in the microscope. Whether intense, brooding, or casually weird, Music From The Film creates a sort of scrambled consciousness that intimates danger but is tempered with innocence from the childish mind of a lunatic. - Ben
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Neurotic Swingers "French Fries, Guillotine, and Love" www.dead-beat-records.com | |
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Plucking the bones of late 70's punk rock, this French band successfully takes that sound, plugs it into their own electricity, and lights up with something catchy and alive that other bands with similar circuitry generally miss out on. They've played with the likes of Radio Birdman and the Briefs, and have a nimble pulse pumping through songs that punch and flow with a timeless appeal. The pop hooks work well on most tracks, making me think this might be the disc to fill that aching void in your collection and complete you as a person. Or maybe not, but I liked it. – BL
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New York Rel-X “Sold Out of Love” www.tkorecords.com | |
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Pretty decent female-fronted street punk. It is professionally produced with lots of singalong choruses and rock-n-roll guitar solos. The singer has a serviceable voice but with an annoying Gwen Stefani waver to it that I’m not fond of. All in all, it is not bad, but not really thrilling either. Pretty generic. - Ben
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The Nifters “Allein” 2-song CD http://come.to/blackjuju | |
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To call this hardcore would diffuse the term of any meaning whatsoever. This is sort of nü metal Evanescence-AFI-type stuff from Sweden with mystical keyboards swirling in the background. It really has a commercial vibe to it. It makes me feel blank inside. - Ben
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Night Terrors “Cobras” www.bigneckrecords.com | |
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Not to be confused with the Night Terrors from Australia, nor Night Terror from Pittsburgh, Milwaukee’s Night Terrors are the ones that’ll make you sleep with the light on. Recorded by Alicja Trout at Tronic Graveyard and featuring key members of Sagger and the Mistreaters, the Night Terrors issue tortured screaming enveloped in bluesy rock ditties that get stabbed and infected by abusive guitar strains which bleed and clot through swollen riffs and jangly ganglions. It is uneasy listening engaged in light deconstruction of the usual rock’n’roll/southern rock idioms. My only reservation is that I am not really fond of the drunk-on-drano vocals. - Ben
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Nox “Psycho Radio Boom Boom!” www.noxandroll.com | |
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It doesn’t really matter that they are singing in Italian and I understand nothing they say because good-time party music transcends language. Not Psychobilly in the sense of most bands pooping on the genre currently, but more rooted in mid-tempo rockabilly gone retarded on surf and westerns. It won’t change your life but it may make the spare moments pass a little more pleasantly. - Ben
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The Numbskulls “The Last…” www.thenumbskulls.com | |
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Street Punk from Worcester, Massachusetts, that isn’t too shabby. The opening guitar melody of “Take It” is very close to Cocksparrer’s “Where Are They Now,” but the rest of the song is not at all similar, so it is probably a conscious homage. They kind of have a little Rancid vibe too, actually. Seems earnest and pretty solid, yet doesn’t really stand out for me. – Ben
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One Last Shot “From Riches to Rags” www.onelastshot.net | |
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Taking more than a little influence from old thrash metal and New York hardcore, this Brooklyn band has some good moments, but the throaty tough guy vocals force me to give this thing a wide berth. I also don’t really like the cheesier metal elements with that horrible 80’s guitar tone, and the choruses of the songs did less for me than a god that doesn’t exist. I guess what I liked was just when they kicked in like a speed metal band. - Ben
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The Ones Self-titled www.waxvaccinerecords.com | |
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This is a power pop band from Portland proffering punkish mid tempo rock that really isn’t bad. They’ve got a very late 70’s sound that’s a little softer than I generally go for, but is well-executed and catchy. The more I listen, the more I like it. - Ben
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The Pagan Dead “Spondalia” www.myspace.com/stygianrealm | |
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While the devil and Psychobilly music definitely aren’t distant relatives, The Pagan Dead bind them together in an unholy embrace with their esoterically evil take on the genre. Lyrically, visually, vocally, and musically they have decidedly darker alliances with the Black Metal genre than any other psychobilly band I am familiar with. I’d say the upright bass is the only link with anything remotely ‘billy, but then I doubt a band that anoints their bodies with a “daemon salve made from the fat of an exhumed child” is very much interested in genre purism | |