by GE 138

     From straight outta Sweden comes this most excellent piece of digitized music, which is the latest release from a band called Rotten Mind, and the release is called Unflavored. Why is it called that? Who knows? It's their 5th album in 7 years and it's a killer, and all I can say is where the fuck have I been?? This music is brilliant! Spacey, British sounding jagged guitar lines swirl and shimmer above a hard as fuck pounding bass / drum rhythm section that harkens back to my beloved  Joy Division if you can believe that! I even hear a lot of influences in Rotten Mind's sound, bands like Killing Joke, The Jesus Lizard, early U2, The Cure, Hanoi Rocks, The Refused, of course, I mean fuck, I could go on forever, and when I say 'influences' I'm not talkng blatant note for note ripoffs of aforementioned bands, but it's more like just capturing the soul, sound and the spirit of those bands, and laying it down as a foundation to the Rotten Mind's juxtapositional tunes, which is beatiful, to say the least. This band really is worthy of all the praise. The singer's distinctive, harmonious snarl is both instantly individualistic as Jello Biafra's, and as easily catchable as a case of herpes backstage at a Motley Crue concert back in the 80's. Songs like Die Young, No Direction, and Degenerates are as ferocious and politically thought provoking as they are catchy and dance inspiring. Gang Of Four were like that, and Rotten Mind got a little of that going for them as well. Rotten Mind are a phenominal band, and this release from them shows me why people are so slavishly devoted to them. I've definitely missed out on the first few years of this bands existence, but I won't be making that mistake anymore. I'm a huge Rotten Mind fan, and after you listen to this album, you will be too! 😊 Best Release of 2022??

Released by Lövely Records. You can find the label all over social media. Same with the band. Rotten Mind's Facebook can be found here, their Instagram can be found here, their Bandcamp can be found here, and their Spotify can be found here. You can find digital downloads of all their releases, as well as a very cool blue/black splattered vinyl version of Unflavored on the Rotten Mind Bandcamp page.

by GE 138.

     Do people still get excited about bands like the Dropkick Murphys? Hasn't that whole "Irish Pride" schtick been run into the ground? It hasn't huh? Bigger than ever you say? Le sigh. Oh well... on that wave of nostalgia with mandolin tinged melodys, sing-song vocal lines and an occasional blast of acccordion accents when appropriate, comes The Rumjacks, all the way from the great Down Under, like Crocodile Dundee down under and shit. They play an energetic type of Irish tinged tuneage that's catchy as fuck and from songs on here like One For The Road, Bloodsoaked In Chorus, and Across The Water, it seems like they'd put on one Hell of a show live. All I knew of The Rumjacks beforehand was something about their old singer being arrested and sent to prison for being a woman beating POS, but I didn't let that deter me from giving them a fair shake musically, so to speak. Brass For Gold is a great sounding record. It's well produced, mixed to perfection, all the musicians involved play well, especially the drummer, who sounds lke he's having a lot of fun laying all those catchy drum lines and hard hitting skip beats and accents, and plus, this sounds good when played loud, which is always a good thing in my book. 😉
     If you're looking for something new to drink along to when you're hanging out at your favorite corporate pseudo Irish bar, go right up to that jukebox on demand monstrosity they have hanging on the wall and type in The Rumjacks and give this album a listen. I bet you and everybody else in the place will like it. Bet.

Put out by Four Four Records. Available anywhere and everywhere Punk music is sold for pretty poly and as the cheap commodity it was always intended to be, places like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Music, Tower Records, etc. The Rumjacks social media: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, blah blah blah

     Downtown Death Rattle is a new band that's basically the original Civilians minus Trueland and with a annoying sounding chick on vocals and keyboards and Tony doing vocals instead of just playing guitar. Think mediocre third wave Murder City Devils, Marilyn Manson & The Spooky Kids, or latter day Turbonegro (you know, when they really really sucked), and you'll have an idea of what this band thinks passes as original or even good. Bleh. Hard pass. 

Mediocrities abound whenever you play around amongst the thieving posing trolls... 😉

​by GE 138.

     Gawd bless Sylvain Sylvain. Seriously. I mean, if there was ever a guy more in love with the whole concept of music, of Rock 'N' Roll music in particular, I've never heard of him or he doesn't exist because as far as I was concerned, there was no one cooler, no one who more perfectly personified the aura, the spirt, the soul, the very essence of Rock 'N' Roll, than Sylvain Mizrahi, aka Sylvain Sylvain, of the New York Dolls. What a fucking legend. His passing last year, basically at the start of this whole COVID thing, went pretty much unnoticed and unheralded by most of us in the music world, and that's a shame, because the man deserved sooooooo much more, so many more accolades and so many more words of praise than he was given, and I can only assume that this release is the start of that process, the start of the dead horse flogging. It's the start of the cash in, the start of all the posthumous live recordings being released and unfortunately this release isn't a very good one. Le sigh.
     This release, titled Live In New York '80, is a muddy sounding recording of a radio broadcast from a legendary Long Island, NY club called My Father's Place, where anyone and everyone played at sometime in their career. This radio broadcast was originally broadcast over local radio station WLIR somehow, and how that came about is a whole other story for a whole other time. Sylvain Sylvain and his band were in town to promote the release of his first album, a self titled solo release, with much of the material from that album being featured on here exclusively, and some latter day New York Dolls tunes and the obscure covers by Clarence "Frogman" Henry and The Standells thrown in to round the set out. The band is playing good, the hometown crowd seems into them, but again, the poor sound quality just tarnishes everything. If anyone is deserving of a box set compilation of all their singles, comp tracks, unreleased matrial, whatever, it's Sylvain Sylvain. The man was the epitome of, the purest essence of Rock 'N' Roll, and until that posthemous release that captures everything that he did sees the light of day, I'm gonna be a bit skeptical on future stuff coming out under the Sylvain Sylvain banner. My patience will pay off in the end I'm sure. 

Available from the bootleggers on Keyhole Records, but I'm not really sure it's worth seeking out. You can buy it at Amazon though, and you can be like the cool kids and stream it everywhere you look for it. "Like" Sylvain Sylvain on Facebook by clicking here, and follow him postmortem on Instagram by clicking here. 

     Ahhhhhh, The Queers. On one hand I'm glad to see that they're still around and putting out new music in this day and age of cancel culture and overt PC correctness, but on the other hand I'm embarrassed that the music that The Queers are putting out nowadays is so lukewarm and tepid and disappointing. Unenthusiastic and basically phoned in, this release sounds uber tired, slow and shitty, not very well produced, and just sad really. Cheeto In A Speedo Eating A Burrito? Really? GTFOHWTS🤣🤣🤣 I read a review about how this album harkens back to The Queers glory days of Love Songs For The Retarded, which is one of my favorite albums of all time, so I was hyped to hear this new release but now? Peee-yeeewwwwwww!! I'd like to find that reviewer that said those scandalous things about this album and kick him in the nuts! This shit is embarrassing, but I'm sure all the Joe Queer fanboys will swallow it up and stoke his little cock and beg for more from their junkie Punk Rock daddy. Me? I'll pass. No thanks. 

Released by All Star Records. Click here to buy it on CD now or to reserve a random colored vinyl copy for later. 😎 Click here to stream or download it digitally from The Queers Bandcamp page by clicking here. "Like" The Queers on Facebook by clicking here. Follow The Queers on Instagram by clicking here.