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'Just Another Joke From New York City...'?
 Oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. It all looked so
promising. Apart from the naff sleeve, that is. For
when you open it up there's a multi-tattooed Rocka resplendent in a Lords of the New Church T-shirt and
the liner notes have thankyou's to Nikki Sudden and Dave Kusworth and the Tenderhooks. But all my sympathy
was burnt up and wasted as this is far too third rate,
despite the guy doing okay and carving himself out a
base on the continent in France and Germany. Obviously
in total thrall to Thunders and Stiv, who he knew and
hung out with yada yada, but there is sooooo little of anything resembling their character,
idiosyncrasy and
personality that infused their output (mostly). Or the
songs. It's one thing heroically carrying the torch
like Emmylou Harris did with Gram Parsons but she was
at least his equal not someone looking up from the
sewers. It seems too much like obsessive fandom to me,
still wrapped up in a little velvet cocoon of smack
trying to wear it as a badge like Johnny did (he sells
keyring needles thru his website. Yeah, cool, man).
Maybe he has been in a bubble tho' as they've
singularly failed to notice that 'I Fell For You'
bears a lot of similarity to Ugly Kid Joes 'Everything
About You'...Tho why on Gods green(ish) earth someone
who was 'friends' with or loved the music of Thunders
would subject 'Chinese Rocks' to the mass slaughter
carried out on 'Hey Is Dee Dee Home?' which is
guaranteed to be the most annoying minute in your
life, ever, unless you're some kind of serial killing
s-and-m freak. More annoying than ringtones, don't
care if you knew 'em, scored for 'em, were the kids
fucking Godfather, bought them strings 'n'
drinks...jesus, what a way to get round the
publishing.
However, in my slightly schizoid mood today it's not
all scabrous slaggings and merciless maulings. Not
quite. That just irritated me. 'Sometime' is a
sweeping, stately country mansion of a tune, very
Keef, even verrier Kusworth, even a touch of the
hallowed Mary Chain in their quieter, reflective
moods. 'Lovespell' works in a chuggy Ramones way and
along with 'What It Takes' and 'In Your World' shows
our Kev has a handy grasp on haulass Rock moves,
jutting out some mindless SleazePunk slime that'd be
fine at the Rockclub but in general is a bit too
middle of the road. He's obviously a full on fan too,
interjecting songs with handy hits of others (The Gun
Club's 'She's like heroin to me line on 'LXXS'), 'Hanging On The Eightball' almost launches into The
Pretenders 'Don't Get Me Wrong' on its way to being a
country swing, and one of the first songs I've come
across to mention email. Bonus. And let it be on the
record that aside from 'Sometime' I fucking love the
title track, nice summery pop feel that shoulda had
heavy MTV rotation, sort of like The Ramones backing
Kusworth. Vocally tho' Mr K has a very thin, reedy
voice; a half-assed, lethargic junkie whine of the
kind that Marianne Faithfull ascribed to Thunders. A
tad too inexpressive. Not unlike Knox of The
Vibrators, in fact (the track 'American Nightmare' is
distinctly Vibrators) as well. Unfortunately to me
it's a signal of disinterest far beyond cool New York
nonchalance and detracts from the good tracks here,
that could be nudged somewhere greater with a bit more
burn and fire in them. And 'I Want Some Drugs' really
grates and whines, especially as it's almost
identically titled big brother 'I want The Drugs' by
The Supersuckers keeps it in the shadows under fear of
having its head ripped off. He wants some,
Supersuckers want all of them. There's always someone
tougher. As it is this would've made a great curiosity
piece as a 5, or 6, track mini-album, maxi-single type
affair. A full album shows up too many weaknesses. A
missed chance. No, a missed connection, man.
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