New York garage punk trio the Devil Dogs could usually be counted on for consistency, but 1994's Saturday Night Fever is a hair below most of their other albums in the entertainment department. Most of the problem is in the production, which takes that fatal half-step from authentically raunchy lo-fi to just plain bad: most of the record sounds like it was recorded at the bottom of a fairly deep well. Even aside from that, however, there are fewer of the Devil Dogs' great snotty pop-punk classics, and too many songs sound like half-hearted rewrites of what had come before. Although it has a fun early-'60s pop parody feel to it, "Get On Your Knees" isn't much more than a rewrite of "Suck the Dog," the early Devil Dogs' slice of punk misogyny later recorded by both Billy Childish and the Italian punks the Singing Dogs. One highlight is a swell cover of Gene Pitney's "Backstage," but too much of the rest of the album is simply passable at best. Source: [AMG]
The Devil Dogs - Once Around The Block / C'mon Little Baby
Track Listing 1. Big Fuckin Party (Pt. 1) 2. Dance With You Baby 3. Gonna Be My Girl 4. Once Around the Block 5. I Don't Believe You 6. Backstage 7. Back in the City 8. 6th Ave. Local 9. It's Not Easy 10. Sweet Like Wine 11. Stuck in 3rd Gear 12. Alright! 13. Big Fuckin Party (Reprise) 14. Get on Your Knees 15. Hellraiser 16. Burnin' Love 17. So Young 18. Long Gone
Equal parts Ramones, Rivieras and Paul Revere and the Raiders, the Swingin' Neckbreakers deliver straight-up rock & roll on this spirited outing. Fueled by the genre-faithful songwriting from bassist/singer Tom Jorgenson and a keep-it-simple rhythm section of drummer/brother John Jorgenson and guitarist Don "Shaggy" Snook, the Neckbreakers play a straightforward brand of rock'n'raunch that critics hate but nonetheless resonates perfectly with the average Joe who just wants to shake it down. Split evenly between strong Jorgenson originals "Action Kid," "The Answer Is No," "Wait," and "Help Wanted," and obscure punk and garage classics like Glen Barber's "Ice Water," Bobby Fuller's "Shakedown," and the Underdogs' "Get Down On Your Knees," this thing doesn't let up for a second. Fans of the Ramones will find much to love here. Source: [AMG]
The Swingin' Neckbreakers - Wait
Track Listing 1. Wait 2. Mighty Mack 3. Ice Water 4. That's the Way My Love Is 5. Help Wanted 6. Shakedown 7. The Answer Is No 8. I Wanna Be Your Driver 9. Action Kid 10. I'm in Love With Me 11. You're Gonna Make Me 12. A Thousand Times a Day 13. Get Down on Your Knees 14. The Girl Can't Help It 15. Brown Eyed Girl
Garage punk outfit the Makers formed in Spokane, WA, in 1991, originally assembling frontman Mike Maker, his bassist brother Don Maker, guitarists Tim Maker and John Maker, and drummer Jay Maker. Famed for their anarchic live dates and for traveling from show to show in a 1965 Pontiac hearse, the group signed to Sympathy for the Record Industry to issue their debut 10" Hip-Notic; the exit of John Maker coincided with a move to the Estrus label for the full-length follow-up, 1993's Howl! The Makers' debut is full of the pounding, garage punk madness that built the Spokane band a small but devoted following. Unfortunately, that following was built largely on live antics and didn't translate terribly well to record. Blunt production, indecipherable lyrics, and too-tense rhythms keep the listener firmly at arm's length, while the band charges full throttle through song after song, oblivious to everything around them. A good record for people who like to zone out, jump around, and throw glasses, but the Makers' later albums offer much more rewarding and enjoyable music. Source: [AMG]
Track Listing 1. I Just Might Crack 2. Think About Your Man 3. I'm Hurt 4. Like a Diamond Ring 5. Allright, Allnight, Allright 6. Memphis Chillun 7. Don't Cross Your Man 8. Explosion 9. Ricky Ticky Tock 10. Try to Cry 11. Your Daddy Drives a Big Car 12. Let Him Try 13. Death of Mr. Monster 14. Sometimes, Sometimes 15. Cool, Clear and Sheen 16. Howl
Outside of their love of '60s surf, garage, bubblegum-pop and '70s punk, the Feends also took their surroundings of the beach as a major musical aspiration. Accompanied by their matching thrift store attire, the line-up of Ian (guitar ), Danni (bass ), Sam (keyboards ), Kent (vocals ), Will (guitar), and Henry (drums) first made their splash in 1990. Following three years of playing throughout their native coast of Western Australia, the band hooked up with the small independent label Spinning Top Records, resulting in their 1993 debut, Freek Show. Source: [AMG]
Track Listing 1. Only Loved One Fish Before 2. On The Prowl 3. RPM 4. Bats 5. Supernatural Feet 6. No More 7. Freek Show 8. Haunted Sea 9. Ghost Train 10. Space Girl
Thee Headcoats is one of the various band monikers assumed by garage rock primitive Billy Childish (aka Bill Hamper), a native of Kent, England. Over several decades -- and regardless of the fashion of the time -- Childish has churned out no-frills garage rock, the likes of which saw a resurgence in hipness in the new millennium with groups such as the Hives and the White Stripes. The ultra-prolific bandleader/producer/poet/painter/publisher first emerged in 1979 with mod-punkers Pop Rivets. By 1982, the Pop Rivets had become the more musically catchy Milkshakes (akaThee Milkshakes or Mickey & the Milkshakes). The band was remarkably prolific, releasing no fewer than seven albums in 1984 (four of them on the same day). Shortly thereafter, Childish moved on to the similarly minded Thee Mighty Caesars. Nevertheless, since the late '80s, Thee Headcoats -- a trio that includes Pop Rivets/Milkshakes/Mighty Caesars drummer Bruce Brand -- has been Childish's primary outlet for his more accessible, straight-up rock & roll. As of 2000, Thee Headcoats were Childish's most prolific outlet (no small accolade). The group played its final gig that year at London's Dirty Water club, though tracks continued to be released. Source: [AMG]
Thee Headcoats - Girl Of Matches
Track Listing 1. Mantrap 2. No Way Out 3. Reindeer Are Wild 4. Hand to Hand 5. Headcoat Man 6. Girl of Matches 7. I Don't Like the Man I Am 8. Pokerhuntus Was Her Name 9. We're Gone 10. Stewball 11. I Ain't About to Give You My Name 12. Rusty Hook
I Know You Fine But How You Doin' is a magnum opus of dirty brilliance. Dirty in the grunge-covered sense. Dirty in the back alley and sleepin' it off sense. As with their first LP House Rockin', the Gories employ a primitive backbeat of tom-toms, fuzzy guitars, and insomniac blues screams (distributed more democratically here by singer/guitarists Dan Kroha -- see also the Demolition Dollrods -- and Mick Collins -- see also Blacktop -- than on the Gories' debut, House Rockin'). Recorded in Memphis at Easley Recording in 1990 with legendary recluse/genius Alex Chilton at the boards, I Know You Fine is ever-so-slightly more "produced" than the debut. But the songwriting, thankfully, never leaves the gutter far behind. Better still, the Gories make you believe that it's all happened to them recently enough to be a painful enough memory to necessitate writing a blues-riff song. Muted howling, cavernous guitars, and throbbing drums are always half a step from simultaneously disappearing and blowing up in your face. The main benefit of a non-D.I.Y. production on this outing is atmospheric, after-hours gems such as "Six Cold Feet," "Early in the Morning," and "Smashed." The desperation quotient is taken up by such tunes as "Stranded," "Goin' to the River," and "Nitroglycerine." I Know You Fine is perhaps the Gories' most focused vision of urban punk blues. As an added bonus, the Crypt reissue version features more than nine extra songs culled from both singles and the original track listing of House Rockin' (perhaps Crypt didn't anticipate reissuing both records). With the added tracks, this reissued version of I Know You Fine But How You Doin' is the one Gories recording to buy if you must only buy one. Source: [AMG]
The Gories - Makin' Love
Track Listing 1. Hey Hey, We're the Gories 2. You Make It Move 3. Detroit Breakdown 4. Stranded 5. Goin' to the River 6. Early in the Morning 7. Thunderbird ESQ 8. Nitroglyeerine 9. Let Your Daddy Ride 10. Six Cold Feet 11. Queenie 12. Smashed 13. Ghost Rider 14. Chick-Inn 15. View from Here 16. Makin' Love
Of the dozens of bands that emerged in the 1980s garage rock revival, Lyres were one of the few that seemed to realize that the point wasn't about how much paisley clothing you could wear or finding the right vintage effects pedals (i.e. wallowing in nostalgia for an era you were too young to have actually witnessed -- the musical equivalent of living in an episode of Happy Days), but about playing cool stripped-down rock & roll. Jeff "Monoman" Conolly understood that the Sonics and the Ramones were traveling in the same direction, but merely using a different path to get there, and, as a result, Lyres' recordings have an energy and passion that's stood the test of time far better than most of their contemporaries; their debut LP, On Fyre, may well be their best. Lyres divide their time equally between covers and originals here, and Conolly's songs are strong enough to stand proudly beside those of his heroes; truth to tell, the album's two most exciting songs, "Don't Give It Up Now" and "Help You Ann," came from his pen. While Conolly's Vox Continental organ keeps his 1960s obsessions up-front throughout, the rest of the band is capable of generating a hard-driving groove, and the performances capture what was exciting and soulful about 1960s punk without drowning in a sea of "retro." If On Fyre has a flaw, it's pacing; the best songs appear on side one, rendering the second half just a bit anticlimactic. But there's good stuff throughout the album, and anyone who digs rock of all eras will find something to shake to on On Fyre. Source: [AMG]
Lyres - Help You Ann
Track Listing 1. Don't Give It up Now 2. Help You Ann 3. I Confess 4. I'm Telling You Girl 5. Love Me Till the Sun Shines 6. I Really Want You Right Now 7. Tired of Waiting 8. Dolly 9. Soapy 10. The Way I Feel About You 11. Not Like the Other One 12. Never Met a Girl Like You Before 13. How Could Have I Done All of These Things 14. Swing Shift 15. Trying Just to Please You 16. Busy Body 17. Someone Who'll Treat You Right Now 18. She Pays the Rent 19. You've Been Wrong 20. I'll Try Anyway
With all the subtlety of their 1970s pro-wrestling maneuver namesake, Trenton, NJ's Swingin' Neckbreakers beautifully piledrive their way through 14 songs on their debut album. Live for Buzz put Swingin' Neckbreakers' formula in place: a deft mixture of covers both unknown and familiar with bassist and lead vocalist Thomas Jorgensen's strong original songwriting. The onslaught comes quickly, song after song smashing its way into your subconscious and your hips with John Jorgensen's bashing beat, his brother's soulful howl, and Shaggy's biting guitar. If a particular number doesn't grab you, no matter; the next one, an even better one, is already coming at you. Live for Buzz, sounding like high fidelity compared to other '90s garage rock kingpins, starts to flag near the end of side two when Swingin' Neckbreakers veer a little too close to a bar band boogie. Trenton makes, the world takes. Source: [AMG]
The Swingin' Neckbreakers - Thinkin' Man's Girl
Track Listing 1. You 2. Thinkin' Man's Girl 3. Same All Over the World 4. Take Your Life 5. I Took My Baby Home 6. Shake It Some More 7. Little Pink Medicine 8. Boss Hoss 9. I Live for Buzz 10. She's Ready to Go Now 11. Little Bitty Corrine 12. You're Lying 13. Saturday's Best 14. The Girl Can't Dance/Look Away
The Crawdaddys started their recording career properly, releasing a record with nothing but '60s R&B, British Invasion, and blues standards (in addition to two original compositions). The Crawdaddys offer a precise account of 1960s R&B with appropriate versions of John Lee Hooker's "Let's Make It Right Now," and Willie Dixon's "Tiger In Your Tank," and Chuck Berry's "Oh Baby Doll." The CD reissue in 1994 features bonus tracks, including The Crawdaddys' entire follow-up 5x4 EP, which features the best Crawdaddys original, "I Can Never Tell." Source: [AMG]
Track Listing 1. I'm A Lover Not A Fighter 2. You Can't Judge A Book By Looking At The Cover 3. Down The Road A Piece 4. Let's Make It 5. Rainin' In My Heart 6. I'm Movin' On 7. Mystic Eyes 8. Oh Baby Doll 9. Bald Headed Woman 10. Come See Me 11. Got You In My Soul 12. Times Are Getting Tougher Than Tough 13. Down In The Bottom 14. Crawdaddy Express 15. I Wanna Put A Tiger In Your Tank 16. There She Goes Again 17. Why Don't You Smile Now 18. Pretty Face 19. Lolette 20. I Can Never Tell 21. I'm Gonna Leave You 22. I'm Dissatisfied
The Stems formed in Perth, Western Australia in 1983 and played music that was heavily influenced by 1960s garage rock and 1970s power pop. The band broke up in 1987 and then reformed (twenty years later) releasing a new album in 2007.
The band, with a new drummer, David Shaw, on board spent most of 1986 touring to promote their EP, including national tours supporting The Flamin Groovies and the Hoodoo Gurus, and also seeking a label deal. Mushroom Records signed the band and the band booked into Platinum Studios with producer Alan Thorne at the end of 1986. The recording process didn’t go smoothly and stretched from the planned one month to three, with a new producer brought in to complete the record. At First Sight, Violets Are Blue was released in 1987, their first recording for the White label. The album debuted at Number 1 on the Australian alternative charts. It also received national and international critical acclaim and would be one of the best selling Australian albums of that year despite the lack of commercial airplay in the corporate FM dominated 80’s. Leaning toward a stronger pop sensibility the album highlighed the talents of Dom Mariani and Richard Lane as skilled tunesmiths of the guitar pop genre. The album was nominated in the top 100 Australian albums of all time by Rolling Stone magazine and the title track "At First Sight" remains a bonafide Australian classic. 1987 also saw the band embark on another national tour, appearances on national television – including playing the final episode of Countdown and the lead single "At First Sight" making the Young Einstein soundtrack. The band seemed to have the world at their feet, an album which went on to become the third top Australian album of 1987. Following the success of the album there was an increase in interest in the band from overseas, particularly in Europe.
Unfortunately, in October 1987, on the eve of a six week European tour the band mysteriously disbanded. Dom's explanation was:
"I was not very happy with the way things were going towards the end of the Stems. We got quite big, and there are the usual problems that happen with that. People tend to drift apart, there are internal conflicts, egos going wild, and bad management was probably the major factor that contributed to the Stems breakup."
Mathews offered a similar explanation
"In the end it was total burn-out. By the time the band broke up, all of us had had enough. Any of us could have quit at any time. There was also this pull to do other stuff away from the band. Source: [mad parade]
The Stems - For Always
Track Listing 1. Make You Mine 2. She's A Monster 3. On & On 4. No Heart 5. All You Want Me For 6. Don't Let Me 7. The Power Of Luv 8. Love Will Grow 9. Just Ain't Enough 10. Jumping To Conclusions 11. Can't Resist 12. Tears Me In Two 13. Under Your Mushroom 14. For Always (Original Demo Version) 15. Hey Joe (Live) 16. Stepping Stone (Live) 17. Does It Turn You On (Live) 18. Lon Chaney Junior's Daughter
New York garage punk trio the Devil Dogs could usually be counted on for consistency, but 1994's Saturday Night Fever is a hair below most of their other albums in the entertainment department. Most of the problem is in the production, which takes that fatal half-step from authentically raunchy lo-fi to just plain bad: most of the record sounds like it was recorded at the bottom of a fairly deep well. Even aside from that, however, there are fewer of the Devil Dogs' great snotty pop-punk classics, and too many songs sound like half-hearted rewrites of what had come before. Although it has a fun early-'60s pop parody feel to it, "Get On Your Knees" isn't much more than a rewrite of "Suck the Dog," the early Devil Dogs' slice of punk misogyny later recorded by both Billy Childish and the Italian punks the Singing Dogs. One highlight is a swell cover of Gene Pitney's "Backstage," but too much of the rest of the album is simply passable at best. Source: [AMG]
