(above photo: Wolf w/stripper 1997)
THE FOLLOWING ARE REVIEWS FROM THE SCUMFEAST ZINE SITE. IT'S ALL PUNK & GARAGE STUFF, THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE TRULY UGLY. DON'T HIDE YOUR HATE!
BLACK LIPS - Los Valientes Del Mundo Nuevo CD
Recorded live at a dancehall in Tijuana, Mexico in front of 200 screaming Punks, drunken locals, pimps, prostitutes, drug dealers and a freaking Mariachi band. Their label VICE Records threw a party with free beer and booze and the band played to all of the ensuing chaos. While I’m not a big fan of live releases simply because they’re usually remastered in a recording studio somewhere later and cleaned up to perfection. This is a true live release because you hear it all including bottles being smashed, crazy drunk Mexicans screaming at the band in Spanish, a trumpet player from the previously mentioned Mariachi band tooting his horn for some stupid reason. Yeah this is Punk Rock here people in pure chaotic form. I’ll bet someone was bleeding after this show. COLE ALEXANDER (vocals/guitar) even says it into the mic, “This is gonna be the best live record of all time”. He just might be right on that one. JOHN REIS from the HOT SNAKES and ROCKET FROM THE CRYPT was there recording this. The sound is perfect, as if you were right there in the audience covered in beer, bleeding, and with some crazed drunken Mexican screaming behind you. The BLACK LIPS come off sounding like some obscure 60’s Garage Punk band off of a PEBBLES compilation high on pills and booze. This CD even sounds better than their studio releases.
www.vicerecords.com
CAREER SOLDIERS - Loss of Words CD
Post Anarcho-Punk has always struck me as a dishonest, self-deceived variety of political posturing. Anarchy itself is an interminable quasi-religious catharsis for the easily influenced. Punk was never about Politics or Religion, so much as a return to musical basics. So when I listen to this San Diego band’s modern day rhyming guttersnipe anthems, I’m thinking what a waste of a good sounding, musically talented band. When a band like this tells me in their lyrics to “Think for myself”, I say sure. I think you are wrong. And do I actually believe they will take my freedom of choice seriously? I don’t think so!
On the opening cut, “This Generation”, the song is about the cowardice of this present younger generation and how they are taught not to question anything. I disagree completely since there are many brave young people today and they are the ones who sacrifice in order to protect others. Unfortunately some have made the ultimate sacrifice in order to give this band the right to play their music. There’s a reason why Punk started in the USA and not in socialist/fascist countries.
In the title song the band claims “war will never bring peace”. What were these guys doing in their High School History classes, picking their noses? Hey kids, you ever heard of World War One or Two, the Revolutionary War, the War Between the States? In the same song the band claims there’s no dissent. I watch TV, read various newspapers and magazines, I’m reading things on the internet, and I listen to Talk Radio everyday. Don’t tell me there’s no dissent in this country because you are being intellectually dishonest.
Then there’s the obligatory “question everything”, which is fine by me, I agree with you. But anyone who questions just to give creedence to their questioning or arguments, and not to find answers, is a fool.
Finally the highlight of this CD is in the songs, “Broken Record” and “Dropping Out”. It’s here that the singer makes references to ending it all. To me that’s a reference to suicidal tendencies. And if that’s the case than this should be the band’s last release, at least the last one with this lead singer. But if it turns out to not be the case, then the CAREER SOLDIERS are just another bunch of political posturing phonies. Like I always say, if you can’t lead by example then get the fuck out of my way.
www.punkcore.com
The HORRORS - Strange House CD
Well according to the AIP and the NME also every other SOB whose had their head up their ass for years. These guys hold it let me take another look at the CD. Ok I cannot tell if there are actual women in this band. The sadist part of CDs is their small print for older eyes. But according to a bunch of losers, the HORRORS are one of the 100 most important bands of 2007. Well thanks to all you college radio losers who have the ability to tell us, the listening and discerning public what is cool. I wouldn’t of known since for years I’ve had my jack-booted foot on the face of alternative music. The dirty little secret is that the kneepad wearing cocksuckers at AIP and NME are always told what to like or dislike from their bosses at various record labels.
Despite what the pussies have to say, I really like the HORRORS on their own merits. Imagine a more Punk BAUHAUS with some heavy 60’s Garage Punk Hammond organ thrown into it all or early MURDER CITY DEVILS. The cover photo has a NY DOLLS look to it, which is why I can’t find the girl in this photo. All right she’s second from the left? But I’m digging this CD since it brings back a Punk Fuckin Rock feel to a Goth edge. The singer is a freakin lunatic by the end of the CD. I’m wondering if drugs were involved in the recording. If they were then great, and this band will be on my daily play list for quite a long time. There’s a ghastly streak of violence in a black wig, which I’m really liking by this band. They even open this CD with a cover "Jack the Ripper", I'll give them balls for that decision. This is definitely Punk in the way that TSOL’s “Beneath the Shadows” was a Punk classic. Now if all of you kids into MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE would grow up and check out the HORRORS, things would be alright.
www.stolentransmission.com
ONLY CRIME - Virulence CD
Here’s the second release by this so-called Calif. Punk super group featuring members from GOOD RIDDANCE, BAIN, and the DESCENDENTS. Now I see that BILL STEVENSON plays drums for these guys and he used to play with BLACK FLAG and ALL. I wonder why those bands were not mentioned? It’s because those two bands combined are what ONLY CRIME is influenced by. It’s as if they crashed their old tour vans into each other and here’s the result, albeit this is an ugly type of accident. From the very beginning of this CD on the song “Take Me”, it’s got that rumbling bass line and added drum pounding like latter day BLACK FLAG. The guitars and vocals crash in like bottles being smashed. Everything sounds cool for about thirty seconds as the singer does his best ROLLINS imitation until the chorus comes and we have that girly man “emo” vocal. The same theme is repeated on the second cut “Everything For You”, hell it’s repeated throughout this whole CD. By the fifth song I’m ready to slap a Warped Tour “Emo Loser” for having the gall of wearing a $25 BLACK FLAG T-shirt. And as we close in on the three-quarter mark of this fucking dink we delve into metal thievery. I hated every band on this label back in the late 90s. That stuff was like a fucking placebo to the real thing. NOFX really sucked all through the 90s also. I saw NOFX play inside of a garage in Carrboro, NC. I’m pretty sure this was in 1987 because I saw FANG play there too. They were a three-piece and playing songs off of their 7”er “Sorry if we’re on Mystic”. I think the name of that place was called the Turning Point, but it was still a huge garage. The people running it took donations from the crowd. NOFX were good then but after that I hated them. But getting back to this CD, its bands like this that have ruined Punk Rock. It’s too much formula driven song structures and no more experimentation. Listening to this is like trying to shave with a dull razor.
www.fatwreck.com
GORE GORE GIRLS - Get the Gore CD
This is their best release by far and has the ladies rocking in a way that reminds me more of the PAYBACKS instead of the PANDORAS. It’s still all girls in the garage punk fuckin rock. These she-babes make ELENA BOBBIT look like a manicurist. There’s fourteen no love lost cuts of blunt garage punk without the overbearing hype. We’ll leave that to listeners like me.
www.bloodshotrecords.com
KAISER CHIEFS - Yours Truly, Angry Mob CD
This was recommended to me from a friend. According to him, it’s been getting plenty of airplay on LITTLE STEVEN’S UNDERGROUND RADIO. This is the band’s sophomore release, their first one came out in 2004. That one, “Employment” was a two million selling disc of Indie Rock ethereal dance crap. Well once I dropped this into the stereo I immediately recognized their hit “Ruby”. It’s an annoying Brit-Pop song that’s also getting airplay on the college radio loser station that someone at work likes to listen to during the daytime hours. After an hour of that I want to wretch. Surviving the playing of hearing that song again, the CD gets better. The song “ The Angry Mob” is a decent enough cut that reminds me of the solo work RAY DAVIS once done.
“Heat Dies Down” sounds like something NEW ORDER could have made. “Highroyds” is the best cut on this disc. It has that bass heavy rhythm that the JAM made as a staple to their sound. It’s just catchy like the flu. But the rest of this CD is a mix of BLUR and OASIS type crap, the soundtrack for Chapel Hill shut ins.
Universal Records
