Singles
May '03
4 song split 7" picture disc
33 RPM. German label, Swedish bands.
(Daredevil) www.daredevilrecords.de
This is one heavy slab o' wax, baby, and I mean that in both in terms of the bands etched into it, and the weight of thing itself- if you sharpened the edges, you could surely lop someone's head off with it, Shogun Assassin style. Nice Barbara Steele artwork, too. Awesome Machine have the best offerings I've heard from them so far on this disc- two blazing tracks of Super Rock that show almost no sign of the Kyuss worship usually prescribed to them. And Ok, so they sound like
Hermano, John Garcia's post-Kyuss cock rock supergroup now, but at least that's progress. The ultra-distorted fuzz bass on these tracks sound like the waves of a filthy black river washing over your skull, and that's spells rock and roll action. I'm actually excited about them now. Awesome, indeed. Rickshaw are so prolific that you'd figure they've got to start suffering from fatigue or stale ideas at some point, but not yet, brother. Squiggling guitars, their patented stoner/sleaze boogie, and the hotrod Halford vocals are all in place, and they bang out two distinctive glam-slammers here. The second Rickshaw track, "White Light" is an insanely catchy sex anthem scorcher that injects a little punk energy into the mix, and it's probably the best song on this record. Jukebox worthy, even. This one's a super rocker through and through, tho, and it looks great, so snatch it up before those rat bastards on Ebay fleece you out of a week's pay for it.
The Stuporstars
2 song 7"
45 RPM. Californ-i-ay band.
(Honeyhole) www.stuporstars.com
Remember the Speed Queens? No? Don't bother then, because their poppy-glampunk-garage rockin' sound lives on in the enthusiastic grooves of the Stuporstars. Given the name, I expected macho, pill-popping cock rock, but what I got was double-speed, pogo-worthy party punk. I'm happy anyway. A-side "Bernadette" is a can't miss, since it's named after a girl, and when has a bad song ever been named after a chick? Besides "Mandy", I mean? B-side appears to be live, and it's a sloppy, punchy run-through of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run". For tramps like us, this quick, dirty, lo-fi single is a winner.
Fresh and Sweet
4 song split 7"
33 rpm (don't believe the cover!). NYC/Netherlands bands.
(Thunderbaby) www.thunderbaby.de
Part of the "splitbaby" series from bitchin' German all-girl label Thunderbaby, this one tosses New York singalong pop punkers The Kowalskis with the similarly themed Netherlands rockers, the Lullabelles. Now, it should be noted that only 4 of the 8 combined members of the bands are actually girls, but that's still a pretty good ratio. The Kowalski's lean heavy on the hooks, sounding kinda like an 80's powerpop band with a Ramones fetish. Leadchick Kitty Kowalski has a sugar-sweet voice that would've made her a million in 1965, and she puts it to great crooning use in these two tracks, especially the classy "I Love You Baby, But I Hate Your Friends", which sounds perfect for the break-up scene in the next Jennifer Love Hewitt/Freddie Prinze JR movie, or something.
I remember this band being dirtier and meaner a few years back, but the same thing could be said about me, too. At any rate, fans of Manda and the Marbles will really dig these tracks. The Lullabelles, on the other hand, don't bother polishing the grit off of their dirty-faced rock and roll, but if they did, it'd be just as bright and shiny as the their single-mates. Both songs are bouncy teenage powerpoppers, and they're over in the time it takes me to type out this sentence. I type with two fingers, but still, they're pretty short. A fun single. On blue vinyl, no less.
Master Mechanic
It's More Fun to Compete/ You've Got a Lot
2 song 7"
45 RPM
Pittsburgh band, hotel concierge desk marble-colored wax
www.mastermechanicusa.org
Long time Pittsburgh institution Master Mechanic return with two more blasts of Steel City thump n' thrash. On "It's More Fun", MM lace their speedy punk and roll with beefy arena riffs and ass kicker lyrics. They do a 180 degree turn on the flip, with the great "You've Got a Lot", which is a total 50's crooner. True to form, their execution is loose and garage-y, but the song itself is a classic, and lead singer Gabrielle really sells the fuckin' thing. It's over before you know it, but it's killer while it lasts.
"Art Kills"
2 song 7"
45 RPM
Orange County band. Blue marble vinyl.
(TKO) www.tkorecords.com
The weird cover, with a scotch-taped, burnt photograph, and the US Bombs logo in the IBM font, makes this look more like a Chrome single than the People's answer to Social Distortion, but inside, it's a different story altogether. The US Bombs have forged a career playing some of the hardest rock and roll imaginable, immediately recognizable thanks to Duane Peters' gravelly, insolent bark. Well, that's certainly on deck here, as is the soaring, rock star guitars, the steamroller '77 rhythms, and the shout-along choruses. Of the two songs here, "Framed" is the most singable- on first listen, even- and "Art Kills" is the angriest. Both are sterling examples of how a band can grow, and thrive, without an ounce of compromise or concession. Along with the Dropkick Murphys, the US Bombs are pretty much the only other
real punk band mainstream America is likely to hear. They take their job seriously, and I salute them. See ya on the mean streets.Little Suzie/Baby's Got a Dick
2 song 7"
45 RPM
German band.
(High School Refuse) ktv@yahoo.com
Berlageweg 12, 9731 LN Gronigen. The Netherlands
Oh, fuck yes. Blowchunks are the absolute Nazz, the total package, the dirtiest, filthiest, most crazily distorted rock and roll mess you'll ever hear. People have been known to literally run out of the fuckin' room when I'm on a Blowchunks jag. They pour on a relentless wall of forceful, fuzzed-out noise that'll peel the paint from your walls and eat a hole through the lining of your stomach. Who knows what they actually sound like under that fearsome black tar wind storm? Maybe Jon Spencer, maybe Sweatmaster, maybe Motley fuckin' Crue. Doesn't matter. The noise comes with the boys, so either girder up your groin, or head for the hills. Two songs, two minutes. The Chunks are Blowin', baby, and it sure ain't pretty. But damn, does it feel good coming up.
Last Target
God's Gamble/What Caused the Problem?
2 song 7"
45 RPM.
Tokyo band. Red vinyl.
(TKO) www.tkorecords.com
As the smashing bottles that open up the A-side would suggest, this one is a rowdy street punk single that appears to be constructed solely to incite the listener to break things and scream. Well, alright. Last Target are
a Japanese band, which pretty much explains why you can't understand a word
they're saying. Luckily, the trade-off girl/boy screeching explains it all in violent decibels. The guitar has a manly chug to it and holds the otherwise completely unhinged band together. Rock and rollers will probably find Last Target too abrasive, but hardcore kids ought to eat it up.
Ruby Gloom/Recipe For Disaster
2 song 7"
Cincinnati band.
(Rapid Pulse) www.rapidpulserecords.com
Kinda hard to be objective, since the Saviors are led by none other than long time Sleazegrinder ally and perpetual rock and roll motherfucker
Dimitri J Monroe, but even if I hated the cat, I'd still give this one high marks, because it's a classic. The Saviors sound more like Hanoi Rocks than even Andy and Mike do these days, and the two songs here are constructed with the same ear for classic rock n' roll hooks as American Heartbreak. Do you dig what I'm saying? This thing just rocks like crazy- especially the glammy "Ruby Gloom", and if you think Dimitri can't sing, well, neither could Mike Monroe. The execution is still flawless, and the band is white-hot, and I know it's probably 15 years too late, but "Saviors" is exactly the right name for this band. I only wish it were true.Heavy Music/Chain Smokin'
2 song 7"
45 RPM.
Dee-troit supergroup
(Big Neck) www.bigneckrecords.com
Says here on the back cover,
about the tunes: "You WILL dig 'em", so it's not like I have much of a choice. SLA (Hey!) is a supergroup comprised of 5 trash rock vets from such seminal gut-bucket garage punkers and R&R howlers as The Come Ons, Bantam Rooster, New Bomb Turks, The Clutters, the Dirtbombs, and El Smasho. With such a formidable lineage, you'd expect a king-size wallop of
Big Beat rock and roll action, and brother, you get it. A-side "Heavy Music" is a monster, a wallop of 60's fuzz and roll that sounds like "Mony, Mony" blasting out of the MC5's stacks, and the b-side is a sleazy psyche-rawk track with Cherry Valance-styled high pitched "Yeahs!" and some seriously meaty, circular riffin'. The boys were absolutely right-I
do dig 'em, and you're gonna dig 'em too. Very few supergroups live up to the sum of their parts, but Seger Liberation Army sound like a crack commado unit of rock and fuckin' roll unto themselves. This one's a classic. Go get it.Stiff
4 song 7"
33 RPM.
Buffalo band.
(Big Neck) www.bigneckrecords.com
Absolutely awful cover of a half-naked kidnap victim dead in the bathtub. Yuck. The back cover's no better, with the three average Joe types that make up Concubine Forming sitting there with their heads all distorted in spooky, "Jacob's Ladder" style. You know what I'm talking about. If ever there was quickly judged book cover in need of redemption by what's lurking inside, it's this one. Well, after spinning it twice, I'm still not sure whether it did, or not. If you play it 45 RPM, it sounds just like Atari Teenage Riot, with a spastic drum machine bleating away behind grinding guitars and a frantic bark. On the other hand, when you play it at the right speed, it sounds like Ministry, or more specifically, their slightly-more-organic off-shoot, Pailhead. It's angry punk with a rock and roll heart and pounding digital drum beats. Sure, it's different, but it is good? Well, it better than it's cover, but you sure can't dance to it. Further proof that Buffalo, New York is a very fucked up place.Everything Looks Like Her/Living on a Memory
2 song 7"
(Rapid Pulse) www.rapidpulserecords.com
"Booze swilling Fooligans, Hell-bent on
Heck" ? Man, ya gotta be careful who you get to write your liner notes. All is forgiven, however, once the needle hits the wax, because the Bombpops play a great, danceable sorta swaggering powerpop that reminds me of Chicago Superpoppers Kissinger. DD Davis' guitar does, in fact, get down like James Brown on a-side "Everything", and the band shows all the signs of a breezy kind of uber-cool as the song chugs along. Nothin' better than when a band turns you into a fan before the song ends, right? B-side "Living on a Memory" has got an even stronger groove, sounding like the world's best bar band hitting their whiskey high, and really
catching fire. Right on, man. Singles like this show why folks are still fussing with this ancient format: Flip, rock, flip, rock, repeat. Great way to spend an afternoon. The Bombpops are where it's at, baby.Mindwrath/The Closest I've Come to Fucking Myself
2 song 7"
45 RPM
Milwaukee band.
(Goodbye Boozy) Via Villa Pompetti 147, 64020 S. Nicolo A Tordino, Teramo, Italy fagsagger@hotmail.com
Goddamn motherfucking Sagger. If you always thought Pussy Galore were too 'musical', then these here serpents of sonic slither are your action men. They play this stuttering sort of Motor City death-gospel, this insidious brand of flamethrower blues punk madness that refuses to keep itself together for more than a few seconds at a time, like somebody playing that video clip of the chick getting hit by a train over and over, rewinding and fast-forwarding to the good part. "Mindwrath" is a mighty clamor of woozy thunder that sounds like rocket-powered motorcycle revving up. The awesomely titled b-side, "The Closest I've Come to Fucking Myself", also serves as the final track on my Cock n Roll compilation, and if anything, sounds even fuzzier and more demented on wax. Righteous.
Love Me/What's on My Mind
2 song 7"
45 RPM
Detroit legend
(Rapid Pulse) www.rapidpulserecords.com
Wow. No Corvettes in sight, but this is Nikki's first single since 1980, when she was the reigning, gum-snapping power pop queen of the nu wave scene. With the modern day Phil Spector, Travis Ramin (Tina and the Total Babes, the Short Fuses) behind the board, presumably waving guns around
and gibbering about the perfect girl-pop song, you'd figure this single would be good, and it is. There's a signature Corvette sound, which involves a neo-punk guitar chug on the verses, and a full-on dreamy bubblegum chorus, and that's in full effect here, as if rock and roll was just standing around smoking Kools for 23 years, waiting for Nikki's eventual return. B-side "What's on My Mind" takes a more modern punk and roll approach, but for the most part, this single is as vintage sounding as an old Knack record, and just as catchy. Welcome back, Nikki, we missed ya.Domestic Disturbance/They're all Dead/She's Blonde
3 song 7
45 RPM
Blue Vinyl
The Inversions
Hung By the Phone/X-Rated Heart/Hit Me
3 song 7"
45 RPM
Columbus, Ohio band
Both records Rapid Pulse www.rapidpulserecords.com
Led by the raging hormones and poison tongue of Kevin McGovern, former screamer for almost-legends The Prostitutes, the Ohio-based Inversions are classic, snot-encrusted danger punks, spewing out minute-and-a-half odes to teenage pussy. I don't know if there's a band out there more suited to this format, since each 45 instantly transports you back to the halcyon days when two minutes was all you needed to rock the tits off the kids and then scram before the smoke clears. Fans of the Pagans, Buzzcocks, and Dwarves are gonna be bouncing off the fuckin' walls with these singles. The songs are too short to pick a fave, really, but "Hit Me" has an amazing hand-clap rhythm to move it along, and "She's Blonde" has got to be one of the most honest reasons to pursue a chick I've heard. Anyway, this is really smoking stuff. Highly recommended.
Barse
Council Estate/Chelsea Bridge/Everything's Pointless
3 song 7"
45 RPM
Durham, England band.
(Rapid Pulse) www.rapidpulserecords.com
Jesus, you can't much more English than this. In fact, to be more '77 punk than Barse, you'd have to be in your mid-40's and on your second liver. As such, you've got thick-as-a-brick accents, single string, 20 second guitar solos, singalong hooligan-baiting choruses, and songs about living in the projects (it sucks), living in Chelsea (it sucks), and having nothing to do (it sucks). I always figured this particular brand of stomp n' roll would've run it's course with the first handful of Slaughter and the Dogs and Peter and the Test Tube Babies singles a few decades ago. Well, silly fuckin' me. Punk, it seems, still ain't dead. Oi on, Barse, Oi on.