 Man,
things have changed- last time I checked, the sound of San Fran was the
manic thrash metal of Metallica and Exodus. Ok, that was 20
years ago, man, what a difference. These days, SF is a hot-bed of
nu-wave inflected garage-skrawk, and baby, they do it better there than
just about anywhere else. This is a damn fine collection of “serious new
meat” (as DNA Cowboy Mick Farren calls ‘em in the
snappy liner notes) that’s bound to unearth an indie-superstar or two.
Blasting out of the gate like a greyhound with it’s ass on fire is The
boogie-woogie, honky-tonkin’ swagger-rawk-cum-flash metal suicide of
Nagg, who could easily be my new favorite band, if there wasn’t
already a line halfway out the door of bands vying for that title. Picture
the Dolls and the Hangmen and that chick from the
Bellrays all tearing it up together around 3 AM or so, and you’ve got
“Beauty of the Bitch”. Goddamn, you could shut this fucker down
now, and I’d be satisfied. Bit hell, there’s a long way to ride here- the
all-girl Boyskout channel their inner Missing Persons for a
creepy little slice of icy, keyboard driven 80’s detachment called “Secrets”,
The awesomely named Hotwire Titans are all thunder-bass booming and
roots-rock menace on “Thieves and Fakes”, the ever-swanky Big
Midnight slather on the mascara for million dollar glam rocker “Push
on You”, the Holy Kiss lay on the dirt blues and greasy
desperation like vintage Poison 13 or Beasts of Bourbon on
the bitchin’ “Sister Temptation”, and, well…there’s a bunch of
other great stuff here too, from The Aktion, The Flakes,
The Coachwhips, and plenty more cool cats with “The” in
their name. This is one far-out comp, with a whole jukebox worth of
dance-crazy garage rockers. Best of all, unless you’re a Superhipster or
something (or you’re actually from Frisco), then most of these
bands will be brand spankin’ new to you. How about that, something to look
forward to. You can take your head out of the oven now. |