CD REVIEWS
Reviews by Jaime Pina, Malibu Lou & Jools Green
Kid Congo Powers And The Near Death Experience Live In St. Kilda
Vinyl Review by Jaime Pina
Hot on the heels of his excellent autobiography , Kid Congo is back on record with a live album recorded in Australia. The recording is very good. A clear recording without losing any of its garage appeal. The Near Death Experience backs him with muscle and the organ gives it an extra bit of raunchiness.
Kid Congo covers a lot of ground here including revisiting his youth in Southern California by playing a tune by East LA legends Thee Midnighters. Diamonds, Fur Coat, And Champagne by New York’s Suicide, a couple of Cramps songs, and even Sex Beat by The Gun Club are also covered in this set. Rounding out the set are songs by Kid’s own band The Pink Monkey Birds and songs from The Near Death Experience featuring Harry Howard (Rowland’s brother) on guitar.
So if you are a Kid Congo fan this one is a must-have and people who are into gnarly garage rock and haven’t kept up with Kid’s post-Bad Seeds work are in for a treat. Kid’s voice is appealing and his stage banter makes you feel welcome. A fun show captured on wax and well worth the effort.
The Streetwalkin' Cheetahs
ONE MORE DRINK
Review by: MALIBU LOU
Written & Produced by The Streetwalkin’ Cheetahs
Taken from the forthcoming full-length re-release ‘One More Drink’ (Deluxe Edition) coaster shaped CDs pouring on tap February 24th on your friendly neighborhood Rum Bar Records: https://rumbarrecords.bandcamp.com/album/one-more-drink-deluxe-edition
Also available today for radio, reviewers, streamers, podcasts and all of your listeners (we swear this will not bite you, Led by original Cheetahs Frank Meyer on lead vocals/guitar, Dino Everett on bass and Mike Sessa on drums, the modern lineup is augmented by Bruce Duff on guitar and Geoff Yeaton on sax. Paying homage to their roots, the self-produced album features guest turns from Dramarama frontman John Easdale, Adolescents founding guitarist Rikk Agnew and Screamers/45 Grave keyboardist Paul Roessler. One More Drink delivers a stunning mix of punk rock energy, power-pop hooks, and chugging riffa-rama-lama. It refuses to bow to any one genre and that doesn’t dissipate its impact. To be blunt, “comeback”: albums are not supposed to sound this good.
Paul B. Cutler - Les Fleurs
In The Red Records
Vinyl Review by Jaime Pina
The name Paul Cutler should be familiar to most of you and for the rest of you if can’t place the name more than likely you have heard more than a few of his songs. Paul started out in Arizona playing brilliant guitar in a brilliant band called The Consumers. After relocating to Los Angeles he met up with fellow former Arizonian Don Bolles and they formed a band called Vox Pop that quickly got Don kicked out of a band he was playing drums in called The Germs. They also had a horror rock band called 45 Grave that achieved great success and helped launch the Los Angeles Death Rock scene. Cutler went on to play with and produce other bands including The Dream Syndicate and then retired from music.
Paul is back with a record as weird and innovative as his past work. The guitar brilliance is all there but since Paul is not known as a singer there is something very different about the vocals on this record. He did this record all by himself and it appears he decided to use his own whispered vocals for the most part even though there are some traditional vocal parts and choruses here and there. The drums sound electronic but pack a mighty punch and serve the songs well.
The opening tracks, The Cold Light Of Day and Engineer would have fit perfectly on a new 45 Grave recording. One is up-tempo and the other is a dirge in keeping with the experimental sounds 45 Grave were known for during the original band’s run. And keeping with that spirit there are different musical approaches all throughout this release. There is straight-up Rock as in Fly Away and then there is exotic psychedelia like in Istanbul. But the single thing running through every song is the miraculous guitar playing and writing. There are hooky guitar signatures pretty much through every song. Signatures that most guitarists would give their eye teeth to come up with. And the songs are catchy even without vocal hooks to carry them. It’s good to have this unforgettable and iconic guitar player back in the game.
Shit Tinnies ‘Town’ Single
Review By: Jools Green
‘Shit Tinnies’, you just can’t resist checking out a Punk band with that name, can you? I know I can’t and when I listened to their single ‘Town’ that didn’t disappoint either.
They are based in Sydney but refer to themselves as multinational Punks and at their live shows they introduce themselves live as “The Kiwi, the Brit, the Serb and the Canadian”, but they certainly have the Aussie humour about them.
‘Town’ follows their debut self-titled EP which they released last May and is a meld of old school Punk with a hint of Skate Punk and Hardcore and takes a humorous look at a night out on a budget and all the likely shenanigans that could ensue, with the catchy chorus…..
“Cos our town is such a bore
So we’re coming to yours to start a war
Cos I don’t wanna have another day of silence
So shut the fuck up and enjoy the violence
Causing trouble in town till the day we die”
…. With classic riffs and a couple of rather good chunks of leadwork to back it up and an overall sound that is a little reminiscent of Pennywise but with a more rugged vocal delivery.
‘Town’, is out now on Riot Records and definitely worth your attention and with a new EP ‘Point To Prove’ to follow shortly…. Watch this space…
Stream/Buy here: http://smarturl.it/ST-Town
Check out the video for ‘Town’ here: https://youtu.be/I6e65fdJruU
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shittinnies/
The C.I.A. -
Surgery Channel
In The Red Records
Vinyl Review by Jaime Pina
This trio consisting of Denée Segall, Ty Segall, and Emmett Kelly creates jarring music by combining electronic sounds mixed with throbbing electric bass guitar. It harkens back to when experimental 80’s bands were fearless in using electronic gadgets to create out-of-the-ordinary sounds before programming and sampling became the norm in contemporary music.
The songs and the way they are presented and performed are confrontational but simultaneously have a sound that draws the listener in. Of course, Denée’s vocals are appealing because she has a sexy voice but the machines providing the percussion are often hard and fast or hard and disorienting while the musical notes on top can be quite exotic and sometimes dark and romantic.
After a noisy introduction, the opening two songs are outstanding with odd hooks and would have sounded perfectly at the home broadcast on Rodney On The Roq in the early 80s. These are followed by the single “Impersonator” and while treading the same ground as the previous two tracks it starts the listener on a path that veers toward the dark and more experimental side of the band. The title track is in two parts and would make an excellent soundtrack to a horror flick.
As the record progresses the songs continue to crush with no trace of any pop influence until the lovely opening of “Under” and the song blossoms into a heavy but hooky short bit of what sounds like a song you would hear on the radio today on the beach somewhere cool. So this is a great record with many twists and turns.
While it is obviously electronic music it defies that label by being something that conjures up odd emotions and takes the listener somewhere they might not have thought of going before. And all that is great and in a way is maybe what the original pioneers of electronic music intended.