CD REVIEWS
Reviews By: Jaime Pina, Chad C, Ginger Coyote, Duff
Erik Core // May Day
Review by Ginger Coyote
Tracks:
Ways and Means
May Day
Fighting the Flood
California’s Burning
Capital’s God King
Breakdown
We are One
An Eye for an Eye
In the Fire
Solidarity Forever
East Bay’s finest Erik Core is back with a 16 track LP filled with punk folk treasures.. Erik who has honed his delivery style over the years. He has been compared to the punk Woody Guthrie with a dash of Joe Strummer and Johnny Cash which makes him very happy. Stand out tracks include May Day, In The Fire,An Eye For An Eye and the lead track Ways and Means
Buy the LP here https://erikcoregunpowder.bandcamp.com/album/may-day
Jeff Dahl // All My Friends Are Crows
Review by Jaime Pina
Remaining silent for years after relocating out of Los Angeles, Jeff Dahl has released three recordings since 2017. This may not seem like a prolific schedule for some but considering Jeff’s inactivity after being one of the busiest musicians in LA, this is unexpected and quite welcome. On both this record and the previous records it is clear that Jeff has not gone stale or spent the time working on the next Sgt. Pepper. His signature sound is based on his admiration for bands that inspired him like The Stones, The Stooges and early LA punk. Of course Jeff ended up joining in and influencing the LA sound by playing in bands like Vox Pop, Powertrip (the first to use the name), The Mentors and The Angry Samoans as well as having an excellent solo career. So it is no surprise that the first tune on the record (also the title track) sounds sort of like a vintage Angry Samoans track. It’s loud, snotty punk n’ roll and Jeff is one of the masters as well as architects of this sound. But Jeff has never been the kind of guy to stay in one box. He has cut songs with acoustic guitars and pianos and made it Rock N’ Roll and he does not stay in a box here. He hits a hauntingly beautiful homerun with Wild Beautiful and Free and while Saint Lucifer has some guitar work worthy of his former bandmate Paul Cutler, it later turns evil and Jeff revisits some of the heavier material he has dabbled in before.
So If you are a fan of Jeff Dahl you will buy this without hesitation knowing that you will enjoy it like his other releases. If you are not familiar with Jeff’s work currently or in the past I would suggest you check this out. It is the product of someone laser-focused on being real with a commitment to Rock N’ Roll that too few have.
L.A. Guns // Black Diamonds
Review by Duff
“Black Diamonds” tracklisting:
You Betray
Wrong About You
Diamonds
Babylon
Shame
Shattered Glass
Gonna Lose
Got It Wrong
Lowlife
Crying
Like A Drug
L.A. Guns have released their latest studio album, “Black Diamonds”. Produced by founding member and guitarist Tracii Guns, “Black Diamonds” is a tour-de-force of rock ‘n roll that fans have come to expect from the long-running hard rockers. Written and recorded over the course of 2022, “Black Diamonds” sees Tracii Guns, Phil Lewis, and company continuing on the same successful and inspiring sonic journey that they’ve been taking on their most recent albums, “Checkered Past”, “The Devil You Know”, and “The Missing Peace”. The band doesn’t shy away from flexing their hard rock influences as they always have but also incorporates more introspective acoustic tracks reflective of their classic rock influences from the ’70s. This makes for a potent and highly listenable cocktail of an album in “Black Diamonds”. From their self-titled debut in 1988 to their widely praised recent suite of “comeback” albums, L.A. GUNS, led by Tracii Guns
and Phil Lewis, have always delivered solid rock ‘n roll to their fans. Since core members Tracii and Phil reunited under the banner of L.A. Guns in 2017, a rekindling of the band’s creative energy has been continuing unabated over the course of, now, four studio albums.
“Black Diamonds” shows no signs of this renaissance slowing down… L.A. Guns never looked like the pretty poster boys that so many of their peers did, but more the band that you would be terrified to bump into in an alley as they would likely be carrying switchblades and ready for a fight. But despite having many songs to back up that image, the band could also write powerful ballads (see the smash hit, “The Ballad Of Jayne” for Exhibit A of this argument) that showed there were some serious songwriting chops in the band.
The story of how we got from the band’s powerful early years to a fourth new studio album in the relatively short time that Guns and Lewis have reunited has already been well documented, so no need to rehash it. What’s important to know and understand is that the driving force of all those classic L.A. Guns songs was Tracii and Phil. Feeling inspired and excited like they did when they first started out, but with many years of wisdom and experience under their belts, and most importantly, a renewed and stronger creative and personal relationship, Guns, Lewis, and L.A. Guns as a whole are at a creative peak.
DEVO // Somewhere With Devo
Vinyl Review By: Jaime Pina
The suite on side A of this disc was previously released on the Now It Can Be Told release from 1989. It was performed as the encore of a show recorded at The Palace in Hollywood. The suit combines the Devo songs Shout and Disco Dancer with Somewhere written by Steven Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein from West Side Story. This was after the departure of Devo’s longtime drummer Alan Meyers and David Kendrick is on the drum throne for this recording. Side A finishes with a remix by Kinky and Side B features a DJ set from Kinky featuring What We Do, Peek-A-Boo, Cameo and Step Up.
This might seem like an odd release and it was done for Record Store Day but Devo collectors will find it a nice piece to add to their vinyl collection. The Freedom of Choice remix is cool and the DJ set is also interesting to listen to. And Devo are no strangers to remixes as they started
including remixes as far back as 1982’s Oh No, It’s Devo release. But one thing I took away from this record is how David Kendrick sounds. Punk rock fans will know his work from the Gleaming Spires song Are You Ready For The Sex Girls from Rodney On The Roq Volume 2 and he also played with Sparks. While no one can replace the distinct tightness of Alan Meyers, Kendrick does a great job here and powers the band like a champ. His playing is strong and it sounds like Devo.
Les Lullies // No Ambition
Review by Chad
LES LULLIES are ready for their 2nd LP with a slew of sweaty live shows around town, the rest of the country, and several other swingin’ European locales in an exhausting tour schedule that has the freaks in heat. We caught up with bassist T. Boy for some thoughts on this latest saucer, why they decided to start singing in French, and their new musical direction. He had this to say:
“One’s gotta admit that the way we’re fed success and ambition sucks big time. We’re against it with this biography of a punk song.” This is in regard to “Zéro Ambition” – the first smoldering single from the LP. “Mauvaise Foi,” or “Bad Faith,” a resolutely French title for this latest album – reflects the band’s decision to sing in their native language. The band collectively describes it as “no-frills, fast-paced punk rock with a few power-pop jabs every here and there.” But there’s also the class cover of “When You Walk In the Room” – a 1964 Jackie DeShannon deep cut that barely cracked the Billboard top 100 in the USA, exemplifying the depth and overall character of this thoughtful group of rock’n’roll devotees. Recording at the famed Château Vergogne by Maxime Smadja (RIXE, Condor, BOSS, Digital Octopus) was a deliberate choice for capturing the essence of their renowned and ferocious on-stage heat.
The Hip Priests // Roden House Blues
Vinyl Review by Jaime Pina
While known as a band from the Action Rock side of things this new release by The Hip Priests starts out at a frantic pace with the song Trojan Horseshit. It comes out of the gate with double time drums and the band sounding like they are fueled primarily on piss, vinegar and alcohol. It
is a powerful throwing down of the gauntlet to exclaim their return. But the record is not all breakneck paced and the band does revisit the sound that they are most known for on songs like Shakin’ Ain’t Fakin’ and Can’t Abide With Me where there is a hard beat you can dance to with hook laden vocals that will stick in your craw for ages.
The Hip Priests are a great live band. They are tight and exciting to watch with guitar pyrotechnics that may well rival MC5 and Blue Oyster Cult and this recording is raw and for real. Seeing the publicity about them signing to a new label I figured the new record might be slickly produced in order to appeal to a larger audience in the rock music realm. But instead the band has built upon their signature rough sound and raw hooks to create one of their greatest records without compromise. But they do cover a lot of ground here while sticking to their guns. Some of the songs are violently speed heavy in addition to their trademark sound but they also throw in a couple of curveballs in the intros to some of the songs. There is a weird little keyboard opening on Sell My Soul and Just To Get By has a fantastic guitar part to open the song before it goes to the hard, pop hooks. Clocking in at barely 30 minutes it may be one of their shortest long players but there is plenty to digest in this short amount of time. And fuck these bands that fill a 70 minute CD to the brim or need to do a double album. This record grabs you by the shirt collar and makes you shake to the Rock N’ Roll that only the ‘Priests can dish out. And it does it in record time! Yet another rocking and quality release from a band that knows how to do it right.
Chip And The Charge Ups // Paying Back The Devil
Review by Charle Rock
Back the Devil,” the second track, “Maleena Made Us Change the Name of This Song to Fit in with the Pop-Punk Community,” sonically blends Blink-182 with Metallica. It somehow goes seamlessly from a fun and poppy ditty to a mosh-worthy breakdown and back again. And it works!
The six-track album also features a song that introduces a new obscene gesture – “Sideways Middle Finger” – and ends with an anthem of rock-n-roll inclusivity entitled “Welcome to the Neighborhood,” sung by the band’s bassist, Maleena Dominick.
“The international rock music scene is a brotherhood and sisterhood,” exclaims Dominick. “In ‘Welcome to the Neighborhood,’ we sing ‘Wherever rock is, you’re somewhere you belong’ because it is true. A rock show is somewhere where you can feel like you belong, even if you don’t get that feeling anywhere else. We want to amplify that message to the entire rock community with our new album.”