The Drills- S/T (Balls of Steel, 1987)
Current Gemm price: N/A
Price I paid: $.99 at In Your Ear records, Cambridge
Worth: I dunno. More than that, tho.
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Nobody knows who the Drills were, or where they came from. Somehow or another, they have been erased from the annals of rock n’ roll completely, and even the aging sleaze beasts I know just give me blank stares when I show ‘em this record. Which is all kinda fucked up, because it was readily available wherever bad flash metal was sold in the late 80’s. If I wasn’t holding a copy in my greasy mitts right now, then I woulda hardly believed they existed myself. Back in ’87, “The Drills” really was kind of unremarkable, a ramshackle mish-mash of cock rock riffs and boozy yelping, but something about it stuck with me. Listening to it now, I realize what it was- the Drills invented 'Punk n’ roll'. Ok, so nobody ever heard this record, which means you can still count the Streetwalkin’ Cheetahs in as the cats who got the sleaze-glam-punk-rock n’ roll wrecking machine going if ya want, but seriously, if you heard this one, the whole blueprint is here. First of all, they’re all dressed in dirty leather, faded denim, eyeliner, and Motorhead t-shirts. Secondly, dig the song titles: “Full Throttle”, “Shakin’ Feelin”, “Sonic Affair”, “Easy Action”, etc. All the songs are about hotrods to hell, the glory of rock, and devil girls on wheels. Sound familiar? How ‘bout the woozy Johnny Thunders solos (courtesy Alex “Hood” Herrera, and “Subway” Mike Hall), or Roger Deering’s snotty vocal delivery? If this record got released tomorrow, you’d just think it was Swedish, or maybe a Red Hot Lovers side-project. And despite some glaring flaws (the songs are so repetitive, I hadda keep checking to make sure the record wasn’t skipping, and Roger’s got a seriously warped delivery- “Time to go full throttle!” sounds like “Time to eat some buffalo! Buffalo!”), you’d probably dig it, man.

So what the hell happened? Well, they were from Miami, not exactly cock n’ roll central, so that couldn’t have helped, and this was marketed as a metal record, which it ain’t, so I’m sure it got it’s fair share of ugly press, if any at all. Most likely, the Drills just all wandered off after this album sunk like a stone, joined a buncha death metal bands, and all run tattoo parlors or motorcycle dealerships now. I bet at least one of ‘em still wears his Drills shirt on the weekends, tho. I know I would, if I had one.

-Sleazegrinder
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