Junkyard- Tried and True (Heatslick)
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From the “I didn’t see that coming” department comes this (mostly) new EP from Hollywood biker rock legends Junkyard. “Tried and True” is their first record in a dozen years, but it coulda come out at the tail end of 1991, and nobody woulda blinked. It’s vintage stuff, like whiskey and wrinkled leather and faded denim, and there’s a good reason for that. See, Junkyard were tossed in with the last wave of hairball bands for desperate marketing reasons, but they were about a million miles away from Aquanet wrecks like Cinderella or Nitro or whoever. They played tough, gritty rock n’ roll, baby, and that shit lasts forever. So let us not fuck with a grand and noble tradition. “T&T” has all the classic Junkyard elements- blooze riffs and hard luck stories and David Roach’s unmistakable bloody-knuckled croon – but it’s more backporch jam session than arena rock bombast this time around. I mean, yeah, they were tougher in 1990, but so was I, ya know? This version treats me just fine, and believe me, the acoustic take on “Simple Man” (originally on their 1989 debut) still has as much balls as the original- it’s just not plugged in. Both “Fight” and “Waste of Time” are smoking Southern-rock inspired thunderbolts of superboogie, and will have both creaky ol’ timers like me and the new breed of redneck riff n’ roll kids pullin’ on their oversized belt buckles and throwing punches in the air. “Holdin’ On” is a soulful, sunny-side up roots rocker, “Tried and True” is a righteous cowboy ballad, and “Old #4” is a shitkicker rave-up, kinda like the Supersuckers in line-dance mode. Bitchin’. Really, my only problem with this ‘un is that it’s only 6 songs long, and 12 fuckin’ years is a long time to wait for half a dozen tunes. Even Axl’s only been stalling for 8 years, man.
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