(Bomp!) www.bomp.com
This is the reissue of this band's 1979 debut album which was apparantly hugely influential. Hmmm. Can't argue either way about that as I'd not heard of them before this popped thru my letter box. And the only influential thing on me is that after writing this up I won't need to play it again. It's not hugely terrible in an annoying way, well not THAT annoying, it's just drippy and wet and twee. It's got punk moves in it with a pure 60's edge but it sounds like the sort of 60's tunes that you get in pastiches (see the clip of 60's Spinal Tap, that sort of thing) not the kitschy cute stuff of Blondie, say. And it's not wet in an appealing gawky way, like Buddy Holly in his thick specs and The Replacements had their doofus loser image of sorts but you could never ever say they were wimpy in any way at all. Nor Blondie. At it's best it reminds me of the Flamin' Groovies when they lurched inexplicably into their bizarre wannabe Beatles stage and any self respecting groovy Groovies groover knows full well that that ain't too much of a good thing anyway. Some of the melodies are awkward where they probably thought they were being clever. Hell, they probably WERE being clever, which is an explanation in itself. And by jiminy the cover of Be Bop A Lula is awful. Slowed down to a snails pace which I'm sure was meant to be bluesy, sensual and dangerous but nawww. Sure, try reworking things to your own way of fucking things up but if you wanna hear a brilliant cover of this tune being totally reworked buy 44 Double D's Sex is Evil (it's the hidden song). Shame as Bomp we all know rocks shit hot and as an idea, band name and title, it's good. But inside it's not.