Gawd I love D.O.A.. If there's one thing you can count on in this world is that D.O.A. is always gigging around somewhere and that they're always putting stuff out and on this album called Treason, their 18th official release, the ol' curmudgeon Joey Shithead and his assembled crew of musical miscreants sound pretty good, probably the best I've heard them sound in a while now. Mid paced thrashers stand proudly alongside Neil Young covers, and it's all recorded very well so it sounds great. Guitars are loud as fuck, the drums are thunderous, and the bass is solid and well defined. Sounds killer. They also rerecorded their early classic Fucked Up Ronnie song and changed it to Fucked Up Donald, and it's basically a way to talk shit about our current racist clown in office. You gotta love a band that covers itself, right? 😁 Like I mentioned earlier I don't know who's in D.O.A. now, and I'm assuming that Joey's the only OG member left, but whoever's playing with him nowadays sound pretty good. The drummer sounds like he's having fun, that's for sure. Standout tracks include Gonna Set You Straight, Wait Till Tomorrow and Just Got Back From The U.S.A. There's nothing fancy involved with D.O.A.. they've always been a meat and potatoes type of Punk band, and after 40+ years it's pretty much the same way now. Nothing much has changed, except for the numerous band members of course, but the spirit of the band, the heart of it, is still alive and beating strong and proud. While this release from D.O.A. isn't the best thing the band has ever done, it's certainly far from the worst either. It's only 8 songs long but I like it. Cheers to Joey Shithead and crew for keeping the black rebel flag of D.O.A. flying loudly and proudly, and here's to many more years and many more releases from this seminal Punk Rock band. I'm a longtime fan. Brought to you by the wonderful people at Sudden Death Records, and you can order the vinyl and CD from them by clicking right here. It's also available from Walmart (click here), Amazon (click here), Apple Music (click here), Tidal (click here), and Soundcloud (click here) and everywhere else that Punk music is bought and sold as the cheap commodity that it is.
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Holy dog shit!!! 😱😱😱 Like the fucking meteor that killed the dinosaurs, this brand spanking new album from X called Alphabetland just fell from the sky and lays waste to anything else you're gonna hear for the rest of this year and maybe even the year after that! Yeah, it's that fucking good, and to say that I'm dumbstruck and giddy over it is an understatement. This is a brand new album from X! Do you know how rare that is??? It's been 27 years since they last released an album, and truth be told, it wasn't that good. It was uninspired, tired sounding, stale, and lacking that cool X vibe they had on their earlier, much better releases. This album is mind blowing. It sounds great! This is the first time the original OG lineup has recorded in 35 years, and if you need more of a reason to feel old, they released this album on the 40th anniversary of the release of their first seminal album Los Angeles, which I remember stealing from Music Plus the week it came out. Ugh!! Kill me now. 😆 Alphabetland sounds incredible. To quote Billy Zoom, it sounds like X is supposed to sound like but never did. Exene Cervenka's vocals are amazing and better than ever, and John Doe's smooth crooning underneath everything Exene sings is part of what makes X the unique band that they are. They're magical together. DJ Bonebrake's drumming is tribal and splashy and machine like in it's presentation and cadence. Dude's one of the better drummers out there, never overplaying, and always complimenting what's being played. He sounds great. And as for the man, the myth, the legend known as Billy Zoom, well, fuck it, I'm just gonna say it: this might be the best thing musically he's ever done. Seriously. His guitar work attacks, it shreds, it leads the way, and sits back and compliments what's being played, whether it's in his melodic fret runs or spastic blurts of twanging noisy lead runs. Everything he's doing sounds fantastic and flawless. The man even throws in some horn work on a few songs just because he can! 😁 I've always been a fan of X, and repeated listenings to this album just have me gobsmacked at the genius level of musical artistry being displayed by Mr. Zoom on this album. The leads he plays on this album are just jaw droppingly perfect. Listen to Water And Wine to see what I'm talking about. ¡Puro rock y roll! Orale! The music, the melodies, the songs... oh my goodness the songs!! ❤ Opening track Alphabetland might be one of the best songs X has ever did, eliciting slight whiffs of something X had done earlier in their career, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Matter of fact, the whole album has that aroma about it, like you've heard that riff before in another song they did or that the song reminds you of something they did earlier in their career, and re-recording early, already been released songs like Delta 88 Nightmare, I Gotta Fever (originally named Heater on early demos), and Cyrano de Berger's Back (which was recorded for the 1st Fleshtones album) doesn't help, but the new original material showcases everything that made X the seminal band that they are. Songs like Angel On The Road, Strange Life, Goodbye Year, Goodbye, and Star Chambered stand perfectly against anything the band recorded on the first 3 albums. I know how crazy that sounds but I'm not even kidding. I like everything about this album - even that jazzy bebop improv poetry last song All The Time In The World!! hahaha I don't know what they were smoking when they recorded that one but I want some! 😎 The cover is interesting, artwork by Wayne White, a local LA legend and bigtime fan of the band, and kudos to Rob Schnapf and Matt Schuessler and Mark Chelecki for capturing it, mixing it, and mastering it and making it sound as good as it does. Like WOW! good. Just saying. 😉 Like a sucker punch that rings your bell for a good long time, this new album from X hits you hard and unexpectedly, reminding you just how good it is to be excited about new music, about how lucky we are to feel anything at this point in our lives, and Alphabetland is full of all the feels and feelings that make a great album a classic one, and this album has 'classic' written all over it. This one is gonna be just as legendary as their earlier records. Wait and see. Released onto the world by Fat Possum Records, and available from their website by clicking here. Also available on the X Bandcamp page by clicking here. The colored vinyl versions are long gone though. 😎 Digitally available via Amazon, Apple Music, Spotify, yada yada yada
I'm loving all this new music that's coming across my desk as of late, but it's a shame that none of it is from local sources. Oh well. This band Human Impulse, hailing from Minnesota, have just released a blistering slab of Punk Rock fury which I'm assuming is their debut release because of its self title. I could be wrong about that but I'm too lazy to look it up because it doesn't matter. First release or seventh release, this is a catchy piece of Punk Rock goodness. They're like Neurosis or Nails but not as brutal or noisy, and a bit more traditional Metal, which ain't a bad thing. Songs like Error Era, Reassessed, and New Wave highlight all three band members singing / screaming along to some pretty interesting, catchy, noisy, and inventively structured songs. It's a fresh take on a familiar musical style and I commend the band for the effort because what they've created sounds really fucking good. If I had to complain about anything about this release I'd say the drums are muddy and buried in the mix, and that this 6 song release is too damn short. If you're into some aggressive, angry, pissed off sounding hardcore Punk Rock, then check out Human Impulse and see what ya think about them. I'm thinking you might like them. 😎 The death last month of Gang Of Four's founding guitarist Andy Gill is still reverberating all throughout the music world, and as a tribute of sorts the band rush released the last few songs that they were working on with Mr. Gill right before his untimely passing, a re-recorded and reimagined song collection named This Heaven Gives Me Migraines, and I gotta say it's not very good as far as tributes go. Of the 3 songs on here, only 1, Natural's Not In It, showcases the level of guitarical genius that Andy Gill was capable of, with the other 2, The Dying Rays and Toreador, more a testament to his lush, atmospheric production style than anything else. To flesh out the release they tacked on snippets of Andy Gill's isolated vocal track from Love Like Anthrax at the beginning of this release and of him talking about his favorite color purple at the end of it. Weird but ok. Sonically this sounds incredible, the re-recording of Naturals Not In It sounds a bit stiff and stale though, and besides the obvious cash in of royalty payments I see no other reason for bands to re-record their early classic stuff, reimagined or not. If you got nothing to say now musically, then quit reminding us of what you had to say musically back then, back when it was real, back when it was sincere and not just a give it a name grubby cash grab. Mr. Gill deserves a much better tribute from the band than this. Much better. Available digitally wherever Punk is bought and sold like the cheap commodity that it is.
Remember Punk Rock? Remember what it sounded like back when you were a kid? I mean, like what it REALLY sounded like, when it was played with an anger and a message and a ferocity that was almost contagious, music played by pissed off kids who almost did it out of a necessity more than anything like success or recognition. This band Smut has all of this and more in spades. Serio! They're that fucking good and they're that fucking impressive, impressive like getting to the gig early and actually going into the venue instead of drinking in the parking lot and once entering being balls out blown away by an opening band that you have no idea who they are or where they're from? Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you Smut, from Los Angeles, California. They've been around for a few years, self released a few cassettes, done a few tours, and this is the product of all that hard work, the bands very first official release, via Iron Lung Records, and it is incredible. A fucking clove and cheap beer stained breath of fresh air that reaffirms my belief in all things Punk Rock. This 4 piece band sounds like every great Punk Rock band you can think of - Black Flag, SSD Control, Bad Brains, Wasted Youth, Misfits, G.I.S.M., Christ On Parade, Poison Idea, you fucking name it. This band just took in all things Punk and just regurgitated it back up into something truly beautiful, a fantastic 8 song collection of some short, angry, catchy as fuck, mind blowingly good songs. The vocals are snarled and dripping with attitude and aggression, with the drums and the bass and the guitar all just hammering away in synchronicity at a furious pace set to destroy faces and entice circle pit action anywhere it's played. Songs like Party Pimple, The Stranger, Cum Inside and Bag, with it's super cool ending, are the type of songs you'd put on a compilation tape to impress your friends with a band that they know nothing about. Oh, who's that? they would ask when they hear the songs, and you'd casually say Oh that's Smut, and they kick ass!! Seriously, do yourself a favor and check this band Smut out. If you don't like them then I guess you should just give it up and start growing a quiff and go listen to some Rockabilly. Punk Rock might not be the thing for you anymore. 😎 Available from Iron Lung Records on beautiful white vinyl by clicking here. Also available digitally on the Smut Bandcamp page by clicking here, on Amazon by clicking here, Apple Music by clicking here.
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