Rock ‘n’ Roll Farm Report: The Alarm MMVI, Darkbuster, Peter Frampton, Motörhead, Ty Tabor (September 2006)

September 2006

The “Rock ‘n’ Roll Farm Report” was a short-lived review column that ran on our Alt.Culture.Guide™ website for almost a year until we closed the site, not due to lack of readers, but from lack of time and money to continue the project. Still, as these columns show, we reviewed a diverse range of music...

THE ALARM MMVI – Under Attack
Nothing reminds me more of the ‘80s than MTV, Lester Bangs and, well, the Alarm. Of course, the “music television” network is anything but these days, Lester wrote his final earthly record review over two decades ago and the Alarm, well…ahem…actually, they’re alive and well. Going under the name the Alarm MMVI (for their 26th year?), the band has released Under Attack, its first U.S. album in 15 years. Don’t mistake this for some sort of faux reunion and blatant attempt at a fast cash grab, folks. A few years back, frontman Mike Peters assembled a brand-new version of the Alarm that includes U.K. rock veterans like guitarist James Stevenson (Generation X), bassist Craig Adams (The Cult) and drummer Steve Grantley (Stiff Little Fingers).
    With this crew backing Peters’ tunes, Under Attack is a fully-realized album that rocks hard and takes no prisoners. Peters has delivered some of his strongest lyrics ever, the guitars ring loud and proud – with just the right amounts of fuzz and feedback – and a building falling on yer head wouldn’t hit as hard as Grantley’s explosive, punk-styled drumming. This isn’t throwback ‘80s rock, but rather a lean-and-mean collection of classic rock songs that are timeless, ringing true in any decade. (Eleven-Thirty Records)            

DARKBUSTER – A Weakness For Spirits
The Reverend has to admit a soft spot in his heart for old-school punk bands like Darkbuster that mosh up their jams with some Celtic flavor, a dash of ska, and more than a few Clash influences worn on their collective sleeves. A Weakness For Spirits blows through your stereo speakers like a tornado ripping through the Kansas countryside. Vocalist/guitarist Lenny Lashley delivers intelligent tunes that boot you in the ass and leave you asking for more while the band props up every song with a delightful recklessness that makes you want to scream “Oi! Oi! Oi!” If too much sugary pop-punk has begun to rot your dentures and petrify the brain, check out Darkbuster for some high-octane, ultra-energetic punk rawk tunes like Grandma used to jam to. Oi! (I Scream Records)
     

PETER FRAMPTON – Fingerprints
Everybody but his mother gave up on Petey a long, long time ago and the one-time wunderkind became just another dino-rock flash ‘n’ the-pan whose greatest hit sits on your grocer’s shelf collecting dust while awaiting rediscovery. Well, the Reverend sez that the time is now and the album is Fingerprints! Since nobody expected Frampton to come alive again anytime during our lifetime, Fingerprints hits like a minor revelation. Getting his instrumental groove on, Frampton kicks it with a dash of funky strutting on “Boot It Up,” waxes Latino on “Ida Y Vuelta,” and goes all Belew on us with “Grab A Chicken (Put It Back).”
    He even breaks out his rusty old vocoder for a run at Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun” with pals Mike McCready and Matt Cameron from Pearl Jam. Petey invited some other friends, as well, with Warren Haynes kicking in on the roots-rock cut “Blooze” and childhood idols Hank Marvin and Brian Bennett from the Shadows joining Pete for the jazzy “My Cup of Tea.” This is the instrumental album that we always knew that Frampton had in him, and it smokes the house with rockin’ soul, dirty blues, and jazzbo flourish, sounding fresh and vital and ready to roll. Forget all about mopes like Vai and Satriani and plug into the original six-string prodigy, Peter Frampton. (New Door Records/Universal)
 

MOTÖRHEAD – Kiss of Death
That used car you just bought lost half of its book value five minutes after you drove it off the shyster’s lot…and it broke down a week later. Motörhead, on the other hand, has been kicking your ass solidly for better than a quarter-century. The great thing about Lemmy and his hand-picked roster of instrumental madmen is that although no single album that Motorhead has ever released is GROUND-BREAKING or even varies much from a simple amps-stuck-on-eleven FORMULA, they’re always consistently ENTERTAINING. Motörhead’s latest disc, Kiss of Death, doesn’t fail the smell test, every song choking on musical mayhem, screaming guitars, and Lemmy’s acid-drenched, drunken-geezer vocals. Steroid-dusted cuts like “Sucker,” “Devil I Know” and “Christine” follow the band’s tried-and-true sonic blueprint, fitting comfortably into the Motörhead milieu.
    Just because they consistently rock harder than pups half their ages, however, doesn’t mean that Lemmy can’t conjure up a SURPRISE every now and then to spice up the mix. On Kiss of Death it’s the social commentary of “God Was Never On Your Side,” an almost bluesy acoustic ballad that explodes into a wicked guitar solo, blistering lyrics attacking religious hypocrisy. The punky rave-up “Ramones” closes out Kiss of Death with a gabba, gabba hey! Lemmy has always remembered who his friends are, and, being the consummate showman that he is, he never forgets his audience, either. Nobody mixes heavy metal thunder and punk rock fury better than Motörhead, Kiss of Death just another reason why Lemmy K and his leather-clad thugs deserve a place in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, whether the hall is ready or not… (Sanctuary Records)

TY TABOR – Rock Garden
For almost twenty years now, King’s X has been one of rock music’s best-kept secrets. ‘Tis a damn shame, too, ‘cause the three guys behind the King’s X name – Doug Pinnick, Ty Tabor, and Jerry Gaskill – have consistently produced music more daring, progressive, and hard rocking than just about any other band that comes to mind. The band members seemingly pay no mind to fleeting commercial considerations, however, each one of them readily diving headfirst into various side projects and solo endeavors even while working together to keep the music of King’s X vital, original, and entertaining.
    Tabor’s Rock Garden is the talented guitarist’s third solo album and his fourth major musical project in three years (behind King’s X’s excellent Ogre Tones album, solo efforts from bandmates Pinnick and Gaskill, and the cool Jelly Jam disc). One might think that behind all this studio work and the recent King’s X tours, Tabor might be suffering from artistic burnout. No way, Jose! Behind the inspired guest vocals of Pinnick and Wally Farkas of the Galactic Cowboys, Tabor has created a veritable tapestry of sound and energy. Drawing upon his love of Beatlesque melodies, psychedelic instrumentation, heavy metal muscle and the musical freedom that rock ‘n’ roll provides, Tabor has gone into his sonic kitchen and whipped up eleven perfect examples of his enormous talent.
    Tabor’s innovative guitar style and mastery of the instrument allows him great latitude in the type of material he composes, from the cosmic space-rock of “Play” to the staggered metallic-soul of “Ride,” or the rootsy, riff-driven “Take It Back.” Any one of these cuts would sound better on the radio than the latest dreck from Godsmack or Buckcherry. King’s X might be rock’s best-kept secret, tho’ it’s not for lack of effort – there seems to be no end to the exciting and entertaining music being created by Ty Tabor and his erstwhile bandmates, Rock Garden included. The Rev sez “check it out!” (Inside Out Music)

Book Review: Michael T. Fournier’s Double Nickels On the Dime (2007)

Although San Pedro’s favorite sons the Minutemen are almost universally praised, they are too often overlooked in favor of lesser punk bands like the Misfits or the Germs. True, the band’s landmark Double Nickels On the Dime album is typically named as one of the genre’s standing classics, but methinks that, much like Rodney Dangerfield, the Minutemen never really get the respect they deserve. I’d be willing to bet that many young punk rockers these days are more familiar with Green Day, NoFX, Hot Water Music, or even the Misfits than with the Minutemen.

This is an oversight that author/professor Michael T. Fournier is trying to correct with his 33 1/3 series book on the Minutemen’s Double Nickels On the Dime album. A well-known music journalist that has been published by both online and print magazines like Pitchfork, Chunklet, and Perfect Sound Forever, Fournier also teaches students at Tufts University about the history of punk rock. Fournier often uses Double Nickels On the Dime in his classes, exposing a new generation of punk fans to this incredible album.

The Minutemen were originally formed as the Reactionaries in San Pedro in 1980 by guitarist/singer D. Boon, bassist Mike Watt and drummer Frank Tonche, along with a second guitarist. George Hurley would replace Tonche, the other guitarist would disappear, and the trio changed its name to the more familiar Minutemen – mostly because the bulk of the band’s songs didn’t extend beyond the 60-second mark. Signed to SST Records, the Minutemen released its Paranoid Time EP in 1981, following with a full-length album, The Punch Line, later that year.

The band built its reputation by touring anywhere somebody would book them, often traveling with Black Flag, and even playing with R.E.M. at one time. By the time that they recorded their fourth album, the two-record Double Nickels On the Dime, the Minutemen had created an eclectic trademark sound that mixed hardcore punk with free-form jazz and scraps of pop, folk, and rock music. Only one of the album’s 44 songs comes within spitting distance of 3-minutes in length, most falling comfortably in the one-and-a-half to two-minute range, each song a short, sharp shock like a poke from a high-voltage cattle prod.

Fournier dissects the album, side-by-side, song-by-song, supplementing his own substantial insight with comments and memories from the Minutemen’s Mike Watt, fellow musicians like Black Flag’s Chuck Dukowski, and other friends and followers of the band. Fournier tells how the album’s sequencing came to be, diving deep into each song and exploring the creative energy behind every tune. By covering the album as he does, the writer also provides plenty of back story, band history, and an overall glimpse into the early-to-mid-’80s west coast punk rock scene.

If Fournier’s classes are anything like this book, they’d be a lot of fun to sit in on. Fournier writes with an easy-going tone, combining the enthusiasm of the unabashed fanboy with the everything-but-the-kitchen sink style of the modern music journalist. It makes for a complete story, to be sure, but also provides the reader with new insight into and newfound appreciation of the band’s work.   

Although I don’t believe that the Minutemen get anywhere near the respect they deserve, the continued efforts of Mike Watt, combined with the support of fans like Michael T. Fournier, has kept the band’s flame burning bright. If not for frontman D. Boon’s tragic death in 1985, the Minutemen would certainly have made the jump to a major label and a larger audience along with friends like Husker Du and Sonic Youth. Still, the band’s legacy and influence is enormous, largely fueled by the excellence of Double Nickels On the Dime. (Continuum Books 33 1/3 series, published April 18th, 2007)

Review originally published by Trademark of Quality (TMQ) blog

Buy the book from Amazon: Michael T. Fournier’s Double Nickels On the Dime 

 

Rock ‘n’ Roll Farm Report: Cities, Good Riddance, Greg Graffin, The Gourds, Jungle Rot, Rainbow (August 2006)

August 2006

The “Rock ‘n’ Roll Farm Report” was a short-lived review column that ran on our Alt.Culture.Guide™ website for almost a year until we closed the site, not due to lack of readers, but from lack of time and money to continue the project. Still, as these columns show, we reviewed a diverse range of music...

CITIES – Cities
“Post-punk revival” is all the rage these days, thirty-something critics auditioning for Pitchfork writing gigs fawning over bands like Interpol or the Walkmen in an effort to relive their misspent youths and assure their continued relevance. Bullocks! The Reverend is a crusty old rockcrit of the Marsh/Bangs/Johnson persuasion, and all the adjectives you can remember from grad school notwithstanding, an album either rocks or it doesn’t. Besides, “post-punk” as a description is mostly a lazy attempt by lesser minds to categorize music that refuses to be pigeonholed.
    Case in point: North Carolina’s Cities. With the “post-punk revival” albatross neatly hung around their neck, the band’s solid debut disc has mostly been dismissed in favor of more “acceptable,” i.e. New York based noisemakers. ‘Tis their loss, however, the self-titled Cities a mind-tickling collection of fuzzy lyrics and fuzzier sound, each song filled with guitars that ring like Quasimodo’s fabled bell and buzz like a mix of Husker Du and Radiohead. Yes, Cities filters its ‘80s-styled college-rock personality against a new millennium soundtrack, and although the melodies are sharp, the album’s production is a bit more blunt than need be. Nevertheless, Cities the album shows the promise of a band that has its feet on the ground and just needs to reach a little higher to hit the stars. (Yep Roc Records)

GOOD RIDDANCE – My Republic
Better than a decade down the road, straight-edge punks Good Riddance sound as hot-and-bothered on their seventh album as they ever have. Part of this can be attributed to former drum-kit mauler Sean Sellers returning to the fold after a lengthy hiatus. The other aspect that keeps Good Riddance young and grounded in an honest punk aesthetic is frontman/songwriter Russ Rankin, as proper a ranter-and-venter of left-wing political polemics as you’re likely to find.
    Rankin’s intelligent and carefully considered lyrical broadsides are matched with a pure white light/white heat musical assault, the band kicking it old school with a renewed fury and self-righteous anger at the powers that be. Usually overshadowed by more loudly militant bands like Anti-Flag or trendier faves like Against Me!, Good Riddance nevertheless remain one of the best political bands on the punk rock landscape. My Republic is an essential release, a sterling example of punk at its relevant best. Plus, these jams will knock the plaster from your walls and shake the cobwebs from your brain! (Fat Wreck Chords)

GREG GRAFFIN – Cold As the Clay
The Reverend has always admired Bad Religion frontman Greg Graffin for his unyielding intelligence, machine-gun vocal delivery and refusal to “dumb down” the band’s songs for a mass market mindset. It comes as little surprise, then, that Graffin’s Cold As the Clay should attempt to teach a punk audience about the charms and wit of “old-time music.” This sort of musical exercise is to be expected from, say, Bruce Springsteen, but it’s an extremely punk rock thing to do for a hardcore legend like Graffin to throw aside fan’s expectations in an effort to make an honest artistic statement. Cold As the Clay succeeds both as an opportunity for Graffin to apply his songwriting talents to a drastically different musical format, and as a showcase for his soulful, vastly underrated vocal abilities.
    Mixing traditional folk and country songs with inspired originals, Graffin’s delivery is supported by solid, appropriately understated performances by a talented group of sympathetic musicians. Bandmate/producer Brett Gurewitz also shows an unexpectedly deft hand in capturing these performances. If one goes into Cold As the Clay expecting the sort of blistering punk rock that Graffin delivers with his full-time band, you’ll be sorely disappointed. However, if you open your ears and free your mind, you’ll find a collection every bit as powerful as anything Bad Religion has ever recorded, music with roots deep in the earth and a history as ancient as mankind. Somewhere, Dave Van Ronk is smiling down on us all… (Anti- Records)
                  

THE GOURDS – Heavy Ornamentals
This Austin, Texas bunch of ne’er-do-wells has been kicking around for almost a decade now and Heavy Ornamentals, the band’s eighth album, displays everything there is to like about the Gourds. Chock full of irreverent humor, pop culture references and whip-smart lyrics, you might think that the Gourds are a little too, well, “intelligent” for the room. These boys temper their smart-aleck intellectual leanings with a lean-n-mean mix of roots rock, trad-country, folky witticisms and blues flavor, all delivered with the mastery of a band that has spent many nights on the road. All of which means that the Gourds are equally at home ripping through a honky-tonk rave-up like “Shake The Chandelier,” a Byrdsian rocker like “Decline-O-Meter,” or a poetic weeper like “Our Patriarch.” Consistently entertaining and as unique as the band that created it, Heavy Ornamentals is more soulful than anything you’re likely to hear from Nashville’s Music Row this year. (Eleven Thirty Records)
     

JUNGLE ROT – War Zone
Let’s go ahead and say it – War Zone is every bit as valid a creative statement as the latest Conor Oberst snoozefest, rockcrit bias against “extreme” music be damned! Pursuing an American (as opposed to Scandinavian) death metal style that uses bands like Sodom or Death as their blueprint, Jungle Rot’s fifth album in eleven years lyrically tackles the violence, brutality and inhumanity of man’s crusades with a stark brilliance and dark poetry. Behind the band’s disturbing, intelligent lyrics, however, lies a soundtrack as explosive, dangerous and powerful as anything you’ll find in extreme metal.
    Frontman Dave Matrise’s vocals are more intelligible, and thus accessible, than most metal growlers, and guitarist Geoff Bub attacks his axe with a zeal that’s downright scary. Bassist James Genenz provides the anchor that keeps the entire thing from flights of fancy while Neil Zacharek is that rare find, a drummer with muscular chops that enhance, rather than bludgeon, each song to its demise. Not to say that Jungle Rot will be pitching songs for The O.C. any time soon, but War Zone delivers a real ass-kicking, one that metal fans should ignore at their own peril. (Crash Music)

RAINBOW – Live In Munich 1977
Featuring the best version of Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow, the one with Dio belting out the tunes and bassist Bob Daisley and drummer Cozy Powell backing the maestro, Live In Munich 1977 is the live Rainbow album fans have long desired. Touring in support of the sub-par On Stage live album, Rainbow was mixing songs from its now-legendary first two albums with material from the yet-to-be-released Dio swansong Long Live Rock ‘n’ Roll. The performances captured on this budget-priced two-CD set are simply brilliant, Blackmore’s incendiary six-string work matched by, perhaps, the best one-two rhythmic punch in the metal world in Daisley and Powell.
    Featuring eight songs stretched to the 90-minute breaking point by extended jams, Dio’s soaring vocals and mind-numbing feats of instrumental prowess that would write the book for ‘80s British heavy metal, Live In Munich 1977 rocks with reckless abandon. Younger fans that never got to witness Blackmore and his wrecking crew firsthand can revel in live versions of “Sixteenth Century Greensleeves,” “Catch the Rainbow” and “Man On the Silver Mountain” that leave scorched earth in their wake. For those of us that were there, Live In Munich 1977 revives some long-forgotten rock ‘n’ roll memories… (Eagle Records)

Archive Review: Otis Redding’s Live On the Sunset Strip (2010)

Showcasing three sets recorded live in April 1966 at Hollywood’s world-famous Whisky A Go-Go club, Otis Redding’s Live On the Sunset Strip presents the music exactly as it went down, 28 songs complete with introductions and the opening emcee. To say that Redding’s performances these nights were nothing short of amazing would be an understatement. The soul shouter had made the jump from Southeast favorite to national star on the strength of his cover of the Stones’ “Satisfaction,” and the hits would just keep coming even past his death in December 1967.

Otis Redding’s Live On The Sunset Strip

With Redding’s three sets stretched across two discs, there is some duplication of the songs performed on Live On The Sunset Strip, but considering the overall quality of the singer’s dynamic performances, who’s counting? While some of these songs will be instantly familiar to soul fans – the bluesy torchsong “These Arms of Mine,” the big band R&B revue rave-up provided “Satisfaction,” and the tearjerking “Mr. Pitiful” are all highlights here – Live On the Sunset Strip offers a deeper look at Redding’s multi-faceted talents. The beautiful “Chained and Bound” is a romanticist fantasy featuring Redding’s pleading, soulful vocals while his original “Respect,” a big hit for Aretha Franklin, is a staggering bit of original rock ‘n’ soul music.

It’s with the second disc of Live On the Sunset Strip that you’ll find some surprises, however. While Redding’s “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” benefits from an incredibly moving performance, and the underrated, emotionally-charged “Security” is 1960s-era soul music at its best, who could have prepared for an Otis Redding cover of the Beatles’ “A Hard Day’s Night.” Shorn of its pop roots, the song is re-imagined here as an old-fashioned R&B romp with a driving rhythm and rowdy vocals. Redding even tackles the Godfather himself with a raucous ten-minute jam on James Brown’s “Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag,” complete with some good-natured stage banter by Redding. The performance is both a tribute to Redding’s talents and a respectful nod to Brown.    

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

Parts of these Whisky shows have been previously released, beginning with 1968’s In Person At the Whisky A Go-Go, and reprised in 1982 with the Recorded Live album. These historical performances made their first appearance on CD in 1993 as Good to Me: Recorded Live at the Whisky, but they’ve never been released to this extent until now. Redding’s star would keep rising from here, the singer scoring more hits and delivering a stunning performance at the Monterey Pop Festival. As shown by Live On the Sunset Strip, however, Redding already had it going on. Well worth checking out for fans of classic soul music. (Stax Records, released May 18, 2010)

Rock ‘n’ Roll Farm Report: Dave Alvin, Hamell On Trial, Rebel Meets Rebel, The Socially Retarded, Jeff Watson (July 2006)

July 2006

The “Rock ‘n’ Roll Farm Report” was a short-lived review column that ran on our Alt.Culture.Guide™ website for almost a year until we closed the site, not due to lack of readers, but from lack of time and money to continue the project. Still, as these columns show, we reviewed a diverse range of music...

DAVE ALVIN – West of the West
It’s a pretty cool idea, really, roots-rocker Dave Alvin delivering an inspired concept album of songs written exclusively by California scribes. Of course, Alvin knew that he was hedging his bet to begin with – when you’re drawing from a roster as deep and talented as that of West Coast songwriters, how could you go wrong? West of the West offers up Alvin’s take on a baker’s dozen of Cali’s best, songs from both well-known wordmongers like Jackson Browne, Brian Wilson, and Tom Waits to lesser-known-but-equally-talented folks like Kate Wolf, Jim Ringer and, well, Dave Alvin.
    Alvin’s warm, friendly vocals seldom overshadow the lyrics, and the band reinvents these tunes with subtlety and loose-limbed elan. So, whether it’s Browne’s “Redneck Friend,” John Fogerty’s “Don’t Look Now,” Merle Haggard’s wonderful “Kern River” or Blackie Ferrell’s “Sonora’s Death Row,” Alvin does an admirable job of honoring his home state’s rich musical heritage with his finest collection of Americana yet. (Yep Roc Records)

HAMELL ON TRIAL – Songs For Parents Who Enjoy Drugs
Pursuing an original, unique folk-rock style that positively bristles with punk energy and attitude, singer/songwriter Ed Hamell has what Frank Zappa once called “no commercial potential.” A self-proclaimed loudmouth with leftist tendencies, Hamell has never shied away from confrontation, both with himself and the powers that be. Songs For Parents Who Enjoy Drugs, Hamell’s sixth studio effort, finds the songwriter’s observations as keen and as deadly as ever. “Inquiring Minds,” a conversation between father and son, is spot-on – funny and smart and all-too-true-to-life for many of us of the “lost generation” between the boomers and Gen X, while “Values” reveals the child’s innocent wisdom.
    Hamell likes to tease the bear at least once per album and “Coulter’s Snatch” takes the fight to the conservative right’s reigning bottle-blonde pin-up queen. The artist’s story-songs are generally populated by the junkies, dealers, whores, and petty criminals that exist on the fringes of polite society, and most songs eschew political correctness in favor of sex, drugs, or political binges. Aided and abetted by producer and fellow traveler Ani DiFranco, Ed Hamell is anything but polite, the raucous wordsmith swinging wildly at his targets like a punch-drunk pugilist, connecting with the knock-out blow more often than not. (Righteous Babe Records)

REBEL MEETS REBEL – Rebel Meets Rebel
The senseless death of metal giant “Dimebag” Darrell is all the more tragic considering that the talented guitarist had a lot of music left to share. The best example of this is Rebel Meets Rebel, a collaborative effort between Dimebag, his brother Vinnie Paul, and outlaw country legend David Allen Coe. Growing up in Texas, the brothers were huge fans of Coe’s music, and somewhere along the Pantera/Damageplan road-to-ruin they had the pleasure of meeting their longtime idol. As musicians are often want to do, they agreed that they should get together sometime and write some songs. Mind you, these informal agreements seldom bear musical fruit, but in the case of these three madmen, they created the metallic twangfest that they called “Rebel Meets Rebel.”
    With Coe supplying vocals and lyrics in front of a band that includes brother Vinnie blistering the skins, Dimebag delivering his typical scorched-earth six-string pyrotechnics and bassist Rex Brown holding down the bottom end, these songs kick serious ass! An unlikely mix of honky-tonk country, Southern-fried funk and uber shred-metal, this bastard hybrid actually works! The album’s inspired instrumentation reveals previously unseen facets of Darrell’s talents, the hard-rocking results both breathtaking and invigorating. This is muscular music that takes the best of its myriad influences and proceeds to knock down the house with a sonic fury, creating a fitting epitaph to the amazing career of the one-and-only Dimebag Darrell. R.I.P. (rock in peace) big guy! (Big Vin Records)

THE SOCIALLY RETARDED – As One Voice
Punk rock has become a fragile thing, as overrun with poseurs as any other genre. It’s all grubby guys in torn jeans and weird haircuts trying to score chicks and a major label deal, fighting in vain to keep their “street cred” while pursuing a musical vision that is long on radio-friendly pop melodies and short on bone-crunching, three-chord riffery. Not so with T.S.R. – The Socially Retarded are a throwback to the gabba gabba heyday of the Ramones and the sturm-und-drang of the Clash. No mindless cretins, these ‘tards, but rather a ‘nad-knocking, eardrum-jarring trio of teen punk diehards delivering some tasty tunes with socially conscious lyrics and a blur of ripping leads and crashing rhythms.
    As One Voice may be short, clocking in at a mere 30 minutes, but it’s street-tuff and hits as hard as the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse playing the girl next door’s birthday party. Guitarist Ryan Reyes has a great punk voice, throaty and passionately spitting out lyrics, while bassist Aaron Chaney and drummer Matt Garcia stir up their monster rhythms with something more adventuresome than your typical punk-rawk clickbeat. It’s all the more amazing that these guys are still in high school, ‘cause they’ve got a better grasp on their music than a lot of older, more established bands. T.S.R. remind me a lot of the old SST label bands, and that’s a high compliment. As One Voice scores on my charts as one of the best punk albums you’ll hear this year. The Rev sez “check it out!” (Mental Records)  

VARIOUS ARTISTS – Hopelessly Devoted To You, Vol. 6
Epitaph Records may get all the press, and Victory Records gets all the chart action, but while many indie labels have inched closer and closer to the mainstream, Hopeless Records and its sister label, Sub City, have kept the flame alive for punk and underground rock. As is the custom with many indie labels, Hopeless has used low-priced compilations as a way to introduce potential fans to the label’s bands, and the sixth volume of their popular Hopelessly Devoted To You series is their biggest and baddest set yet. Imagine two CDs, packed with three-dozen songs, complimented by a bonus DVD featuring music videos from better than two-dozen bands…all for less than a sixer of fancy imported brew!
    Disc one features music from new/recent Hopeless/Sub City releases from bands like Against All Authority, Kaddisfly, All Time Low, and Ever We Fall, including previously unreleased and live tracks from Thrice, Amber Pacific, and Mustard Plug. Disc two revisits the storied history of Hopeless/Sub City, with essential (and oft-times rare) tracks from Guttermouth, the Queers, Against All Authority, Thrice, Avenged Sevenfold, and Dillinger Four, among many others. The bonus DVD includes cheap video thrills from most of the aforementioned bands as well as Scared of Chaka, the Weakerthans, and 88 Fingers Louie. It’s altogether a very cool package, lots of rocking audio and video for very little money, so what the hell are you waiting for? Go get it already! (Hopeless Records)

JEFF WATSON – Now Hear This One
The Reverend was never much of a Night Ranger fan back in the day. They were too commercial, too polished to be of real interest, much less to hold my attention beyond the opening chords of “Sister Christian.” Don’t hold his stint in Night Ranger against Jeff Watson, though – any guitarist that releases an album on Mike Varney’s Shrapnel Records label is OK in my book. Judging from the tunes on Now Hear This One, Watson’s new “digital only” release on Universal’s UMe Digital label, there’s more going on here than meets the eye. Freed from the constraints of a purely commercial release, Watson has allowed his six-string muse to explore various styles of playing and musical genres on Now Hear This One, and the results are simply intoxicating.
    It helps Watson’s cause that he weaves intricate, hypnotic ‘60s-inspired jams like “Moment of Truth,” sounding like Quicksilver Messenger Service’s best psychedelic moments, or that he waxes ecstatic with muscular tracks like “Wander Lust” or “Simple Man.” Both songs would sound too cool on rock radio if such a thing still existed. Now Hear This One is a fine album for fans of rock guitar, AOR, and ‘60s-styled musical experimentation that you just can’t get anywhere else these days. Jeff Watson is an unheralded talent, often overlooked because of his success with Night Ranger. However, even a casual listen to Now Hear This One proves that there’s much more to Watson than his hit songs. You’ll find this one only in cyberspace, on iTunes, and other fine digital download services. (UMe Digital)

Rock ‘n’ Roll Farm Report: Against All Authority, Arctic Monkeys, Demiricous, Lacuna Coil, Mardo (May 2006)

May 2006

The “Rock ‘n’ Roll Farm Report” was a short-lived review column that ran on our Alt.Culture.Guide™ website for almost a year until we closed the site, not due to lack of readers, but from lack of time and money to continue the project. Still, as these columns show, we reviewed a diverse range of music…

AGAINST ALL AUTHORITY – The Restoration Of Chaos & Order
While many of their ideological brethren have fled the punk-rock playground in search of corporate sponsorship, respectability, and a pension plan, Against All Authority has done an admirable job of adhering to its D.I.Y. aesthetic. The Restoration of Chaos & Order doesn’t break any new ground, lyrically or musically, but for Warped Tour kidz whose only exposure to radical politricks comes from The Daily Show, this should hit ‘em like a typhoon.
    The disc reveals just enough skankin’ riddims to soften the band’s hardcore punk sound a bit in the face of an unrelenting barrage of blistering guitars and throbbing bass lines, every song displaying honest “rage against the machine.” AAA is unafraid to tackle issues like corporate greed, televised warfare, corrupt politics, and the homogenization of punk with a righteous anger earned by a decade of living right, and a defiance that hasn’t budged an inch in over a decade. “We turn it up ‘cause we like it loud,” indeed. (Hopeless Records)  

ARCTIC MONKEYS – Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not
Arctic Monkeys, England’s hot shit simian rockers, were recently picked by UK audiences as the best…British…band…ever. Better than the Beatles, better than the Rolling Stones, better than the Who and the freakin’ Kinks! After listening to Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not tho’, I’d have a hard time placing the band ahead of even the Animals, tell ya the truth. Yeah, the Arctic Monkeys display an undeniable energy and a contagious “devil may care” attitude, and pop/rock workouts like “I Bet You Look Good On the Dancefloor” and “Riot Van” prove these chimps are no mere loafish cads looking for a good time and a bit o’ notoriety. But in ten years time, if these trendy fops haven’t been lumped together with the brothers Gallagher and Mr. Cocker in the mid-tier ranks of Brit-pop history, I’ll gladly eat my fedora. (Domino Recording Company)

DEMIRICOUS – One (Hellbound)
There’s that magic moment on any classic heavy metal disc when the guitar strikes your eardrums like a freakin’ mutant bumblebee, poking a hole in your consciousness. The vocals become just another heavy riff hanging in your thoughts and the drums merge with your own rapid heartbeat. For Demiricous, on their debut disc One (Hellbound), that moments comes ‘round on song three, “Vagrant Idol.” If this toxic narcotic doesn’t blister and peel the skin from your bones and kick yer scrawny, Satan-lovin' ass back to hell, then you just haven’t turned the stereo up loud enough, chuckles! The rest of One (Hellbound) is ruled by a similar vibe, songs like “Repentagram,” “Ironsides” and “Cheat the Leader” serving up enough flame-thrower axework, demonic vocalese and galloping rhythms to put the average listener into a coma (or a rubber room). (Metal Blade Records)   

LACUNA COIL – Karmacode
Pipes like Christina Scabbia’s don’t come along but once or twice in a generation, so ‘tis a shame that Italy’s Lacuna Coil has been forced to play second fiddle, stateside, to Evanescence in the great Goth-metal sweepstakes. But while Ms. Lee and company verge on self-destruction due to scandals, betrayals and the benefits of rock stardom, Lacuna Coil has delivered the strongest effort of its career in Karmacode.
    Emphasizing more of the progressive elements of their sound and eschewing the pop-metal trappings of bands attempting to woo the mainstream, Lacuna Coil rocks hard on the wings of Scabbia’s incredible vocals. Although the diva’s vox put anything you’ll hear on American Idol to shame, the band’s technically-proficient musicianship, sense of space and theatrics, and its larger-than-life personality creates a sound that sticks in your mind long after the CD’s done playing on the stereo. Fans of Evanescence should trade up to the real deal while anybody that has a hard rock jones would do well to score a fix of Lacuna Coil. (Century Media Records)

MARDO – The New Gun
None of the current crop o’ revival kiddies trying to relive the boozy glory days of their grandparents can walk the ‘70s-styled cock-rock mambo line like the brothers Mardo. Weaned on mildew-crusted 45s by the likes of T-Rex, Slade, Sabbath, and Zeppelin, the band’s self-titled debut was a brilliant bit o’ retro rock. With this second shot at overnite success, it seems like a committee of advisors, consultants, image-shapers, and other ne’er-do-wells have chopped and screwed, flanged and wah-wah’d away the psyche-drenched booger-rock of Mardo’s debut in favor of a blatant grab at respectability. The money men behind the band smell a quick return on their investment and they’ve brought back producer Les Pierce to make sure that the boys play ball.
    It’s the jazzman that fumbles the pill this time out, though, cleaning the band up a little too much, injecting bits-n-pieces of balladry where there should be strutting, funk where there should be mindless riffing, and jazzy licks where there should be, well…more mindless riffing. The New Gun has its moments, tunes like “Lolita Live & Learn” displaying the Mardo of yore, the guys showing more chops than a Kobe chef. Far too often, however, they’re reduced to merely mimicking Bon Scott and AC/DC, or worse yet, Bret Michaels and Poison. It may grab them some airplay, but it sure won’t get them any respect. Better luck next time, boys... (House of Restitution)

Rock ‘n’ Roll Farm Report: Anti-Flag, The Kickbacks, Saga, Michael Sanders & One Nation Tribe, Wolfmother (June 2006)

June 2006

The “Rock ‘n’ Roll Farm Report” was a short-lived review column that ran on our Alt.Culture.Guide™ website for almost a year until we closed the site, not due to lack of readers, but from lack of time and money to continue the project. Still, as these columns show, we reviewed a diverse range of music...

ANTI-FLAG – For Blood and Empire
Since punk rockers are an argumentative bunch of boojies under any circumstances, I’m sure that the major label defection of indie hardcore stalwarts Anti-Flag has already been chewed over and spat out on dozens of chat rooms and message boards across the star-spangled ‘net. Maybe the Reverend is too old for this sort of hijinx, or maybe I just don’t give a damn. These ears honestly can’t hear much diff between For Blood and Empire, Anti-Flag’s controversial major label debut, and the three or four other AF CDs that rotate off my shelf and onto the music box from time to time. Let’s take a peek at some of AF’s new major label concerns, shall we? Anti-war? Check. Anti-racist? Check. Anti-corporate? Check. Anti-WTO, “Big Media,” and social injustice? Check, check, and checkmate.
    The music on For Blood and Empire still blisters and peels, the guitars cut all the way down to the bone, and frontman Justin Sane’s vocals still spit out venomous lyrics with an admirable fury. Is Anti-Flag signing with Sony BMG to reach a wider audience with its radical agenda any different than Bad Religion releasing albums through WEA? I say that Justin and crew should grab the cash and hightail it back to Steeltown before the Germans running RCA wake up and realize what they’ve done. In the meantime, all you young punx relax…Anti-Flag still kicks ass and For Blood and Empire is the balls. The Reverend sez so… (RCA Records)

THE KICKBACKS – Motel Stars
Is there room for intelligent music in today’s corporate environment? Probably not, but thank gawd that some bands still have the balls and brains and desire to crank out 90-proof rawk ‘n’ roll. Take, for instance, the Kickbacks. The Boston band’s fourth trip to the plate is an infectious and lively sonic brew of jangling, guitar-driven pop, gilded riff-happy rock, and enough twang to appeal to the Americana crowd. Motel Stars may tip the scales at a lightweight half-hour, but the album’s carefully constructed tunes hit your ears like ten perfectly-timed, three-minute jolts of electricity. Back in the day, once upon a time, in a land far away and all that rubbish, songs like the punchy “Lazy Eye,” the shimmering, dreamy “SSS,” and the wickedly delightful “Lethal Charm” would have been snapped up on 45rpm vinyl by music lovers and blasted by discriminating radio stations out of car radios across the fruited plains. In the modern world, however, where Sturgeon’s law* has been diluted by corporate greed and listener fatigue, the Kickbacks will have to rely on word of mouth and live performances to drive people to their page on CD Baby. It’s worth the trip, though, Motel Stars a long shot at rock stardom but a short walk to some of the highest quality pop-rock jams that your ears will ever enjoy. (Peeled Label Records)
         

SAGA – Trust
Canadian proggers Saga hit the racks this month with Trust, the band’s 17th album and, perhaps, their best effort yet. With thirty years under their creative belts, Saga stands as one of the original graybeards of the prog-rock genre, and with Trust they extend their already impressive rep with a solid collection of melodic rock that combines the best elements of AOR vibe with prog grandiosity. Mainstream critics, corporate hacks that wouldn’t know King Crimson from King Diamond (or King Missile), have pointed to instrumental doodlers such as Mars Volta or Coheed & Cambria as today’s progressive rock bands. Sez who? They should pull their heads (and ears) from their collective patoots!
    Those bands are fine, but if screeching axes alone made a prog-rock band, why isn’t Ted Nugent fronting the Flower Kings, eh? No, Saga is the real deal, the tunes on Trust a sturdy amalgam of perfectly blended, complex instrumentation (driven by guitar and synth/keyboards), imaginative lyrics, soaring vocals, and a musical chemistry that doesn’t happen by chance, but rather through hard work and plenty of nights spent on stage. These guys helped built the foundation for modern prog-rock; hopefully Trust will earn Saga their rightful place in the progressive pantheon. (Inside Out Music)

MICHAEL SANDERS & ONE NATION TRIBE – Servants of A Lesser God
Growing up in the shadows of Motown in London, Ontario, Canadian guitarslinger Michael Sanders may have been poor, but he soaked up some impressive musical influences. At first fronting the brutal hardcore cult band Dyoxen, Sanders later left Canada and made his way to LA to pursue his own unique musical vision. Sanders’ debut, Servants of A Lesser God, brings together a myriad of influences. Fronting the “One Tribe Nation,” a pick-up band of like-minded young talents and grizzled session pros like percussionist Luis Conte and vocalist Bernard Fowler, Sanders strikes with the stealth of a stage magician and the menace of a coiled rattlesnake.
    Servants of A Lesser God runs the gamut of hard rock, blues, jazz, funk, and Latin genres, all of them tied together by Sanders’ amazing six-string abilities. He reminds me a lot of a young Carlos Santana in tone and range, but Sanders aspires to achieve much more. The guitarist is not afraid to sit back and allow his band to fill in these songs with a joyful noise, resulting in the same sort of groundbreaking performances we heard back in the day from titans like Santana and Weather Report. Sanders & One Tribe Nation experiment with both style and sound, creating a satisfying multi-cultural stew and one breathtaking debut. (Esoterica Records)

WOLFMOTHER – Wolfmother
Yeah, so they sound like Led Zeppelin jamming with Black Sabbath in some sort of Jim Morrison wet dream. This is a bad thing, eh? Aussie shrimpboaters Wolfmother wax ecstatic with self-titled debut, pursuing their childhood dreams of a big boot beat and the endless, eternal riff. Yeah, we’ve all heard this sonic wind before, but for those of us who teethed on strats-n-stadium booger rock, Wolfmother is a blast of nostalgia so real you can smell the pot smoke. Besides, any argument about retro-sounds or the derivative nature of Wolfmother’s chosen milieu are ill-conceived and quite possibly stoopid. These songs rock with a fierce passion that trendier popcrit moozak-fantasies like Coldplay or the Arctic Monkeys will never muster in our lifetimes. God bless ‘em, but these boys really wish they were living their bell-bottom dreams back in ’73 (shudder). Slap “Woman” on the box and prepare to have your eardrums slapped back to yer high school daze. It’s just that damn good... (Interscope Records)

Archive Review: Reverend Gary Davis’s New Blues and Gospel (2011)

When hardcore, old-school blues music fans sit around and chew the fat, arguments usually evolve around the usual suspects – either Delta bluesmen like Charley Patton, Son House, and Robert Johnson or influential, modern era Chicago blues pioneers like Muddy Waters, Little Walter, and Howlin’ Wolf. Even if the debate eventually turns towards the more folk-oriented Piedmont blues sound that emanated from the Carolinas and Georgia during the 1920s and ‘30s, legends like Blind Willie McTell and Blind Boy Fuller are usually the names discussed.

One name that is spoken in reverent, almost hushed tones is that of Reverend Gary Davis. A Piedmont blues guitarist originally hailing from South Carolina, Davis is often overlooked in the aforementioned discussions, but his influence is widespread and mighty powerful. His songs have been recorded by folkies like Dave Van Ronk, blues artists like Taj Mahal, and even rockers like the Grateful Dead, while his groundbreaking six-string style would inform that of such accomplished pickers as Ry Cooder, John Fahey, and even Davy Graham across the pond in England.

Reverend Gary Davis

A self-taught guitarist, while Davis himself was influenced by bluesmen like Blind Lemon Jefferson and Blind Willie Johnson, he is also said to have had a major impact on the playing style of Blind Boy Fuller. Like many of his Piedmont contemporaries during the 1920s, Davis’s original sound was a lively mix of blues, ragtime, hokum, gospel, and even jazz styles, but after turning to the ministry in the late ‘30s, Davis leaned more towards spiritual and gospel material, often infusing the sacred with the profane influence of the blues, whether he meant to or not.

Davis first recorded in the 1930s but, dissatisfied with the money paid him, wouldn’t venture back into the studio for nearly 20 years. He moved to New York City in the 1940s, where he would undertake a street corner ministry, preaching and performing for passersby in Harlem. Davis would be “rediscovered” during the folk-blues boom of the late 1950s and ‘60s, and he performed and recorded regularly until his death in 1972, releasing material on a number of folk, blues, and jazz record labels like Prestige, Bluesville, Biograph, and Vanguard. For a man of the cloth, Davis could be awfully cagey, and in interviews he often contradicted himself or left questions about his past unanswered.   

New Blues and Gospel

Much like Davis’s lengthy career, the story behind the guitarist’s New Blues and Gospel LP is somewhat shrouded in mystery. Originally recorded for Arnold Caplin’s Biograph Records label, varying references claim that the album was released in 1968…or maybe 1971, which makes more sense when considering that blues historian Stephen Calt’s liner notes refer to Davis as 75 years old (he was said to have been born in 1896; you do the math). Regardless, this true-blue Sutro Park reissue slaps Davis’s timeless songs onto a thick slab of pristine 180-gram vinyl packaged in a sturdy cardboard sleeve with the album’s uber-cool original cover art on the front and Calt’s rambling notes, along with the album’s track list, on the rear.

New Blues and Gospel lives up to its advertising, the album’s ten songs displaying some of the gospel bluesman’s most accessible performances. Even at 75, Davis could swing his 12-string guitar like nobody else, out-picking pretenders like Jimmy Page with a deft, fluid hand while laying down some of the fieriest, sermon-on-the-mount vocals that you’ve ever heard. The LP leads off with the upbeat, distinctively Piedmont blues-styled “How Happy I Am,” a wonderful showcase for Davis’s spry finger-picked guitar style and soaring vocal style. With “I Heard the Angels Singing,” Davis veers more towards the spiritual side of his catalog, his somber vocal performance tempered by a darker, more intricate guitar line that is stunning and effective.

Davis’s “Samson and Delilah” is, perhaps, the best-known tune in his songbook, recorded by the folk trio Peter, Paul & Mary in 1962 for their chart-topping debut album. The Rev. Davis’s version remains without peer, however, and his performance of the time-tested song on New Blues and Gospel is joyous, transcendent, and mesmerizing, his voice leading the listener in one direction while his complex, busy guitar line embroiders the song with a zeal that veers in an entirely different direction. Another well-known chestnut in Davis’s repertoire is “Children of Zion,” on which the singer delivers a haunting vocal performance that is made all the more powerful by his carefully-crafted, dark-hued six-string soundtrack.       

Whistling Blues

Side two of New Blues and Gospel follows much the same well-traveled path as the first five songs, perhaps one of the best-known tunes here being “Sally, Where’d You Get Your Whiskey?” A rollicking Piedmont-styled blues story-song with a recurring riff (not dissimilar in nature to what Fred McDowell was creating Hill Country blues with in Mississippi at the time); Davis lays his gymnastic vocals atop the lively guitar licks. The traditional “Hesitation Blues,” popularized by W.C. Handy in 1915, may have originally been a spiritual number, and it has frequently been recorded in different versions by artists as diverse as Louis Armstrong, Jerry Garcia, Doc Watson, and the Holy Modal Rounders, among many others.

Davis’s take on the song displays a soft ragtime influence with its talking blues construct, the guitarist speaking rather than singing the seemingly stream-of-consciousness vocals while his busy fingers pick out an energetic melody. “Whistling Blues” is a similar talking blues tune, even more so, really, Davis delivering the song’s rambling story with vocals accompanied by both laid-back guitar passages and the odd squeals and screams of string-bending notes. The album closes out with “Lost John,” a traditional folk song that features Davis on harmonica rather than guitar, the mostly instrumental performance reminding of 1940s-era harpslingers like DeFord Bailey, Davis’s freight train chromatics punctuated by random hollers and whoops.       

“The Legendary” Reverend Gary Davis, as he’s billed on the cover of New Blues and Gospel, is a joyful and charismatic performer, a gospel-blues artist whose closest peer would probably be the great Blind Willie Johnson. Unlike Johnson, who certainly influenced Davis’s music, Davis himself would influence a generation of young white blues enthusiasts who would subsequently carry his music and message well into the future.

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

New Blues and Gospel, for those who haven’t heard it, is an unexpected treasure, a fine introduction to the skills and charms of the good Reverend, and a bona fide classic of the gospel-blues genre. Even at 75 years old, Davis could still swing that hammer like nobody else, and contemporary guitarists could certainly learn something about melody, song construction, timing, and technique from this legendary, albeit frequently overlooked blues-cum-gospel performer. (Sutro Park Records, released ‎July 16th, 2011)

Review originally published by Blurt magazine

Buy the vinyl from Amazon: Reverend Gary Davis’s New Blues and Gospel

Remembering David Johansen, R.I.P.

Former New York Dolls front man and solo artist David Johansen passed away this week after a lengthy battle with various health issues. “David Johansen passed away peacefully at home, holding the hands of his wife Mara Hennessey and daughter Leah, in the sunlight surrounded by music and flowers,” his family posted on the Sweet Relief fundraising website. “After a decade of profoundly compromised health he died of natural causes at the age of 75.” A unique and charismatic performer, Johansen never quite received the commercial success his music would seem to demand, but his star continues to shine as young generation of rockers discover the infectious and energetic sound of the first two New York Dolls albums…

Born in Staten Island in 1950, Johansen was, in many ways, the quintessential New Yorker – brash, bold, and loud while performing, but with a reputation as friendly and engaging off stage. Johansen began performing in the late ‘60s, singing with a local band called the Vagabond Missionaries. Johansen later hooked up with guitarists Johnny Thunders and Rick Rivets, bassist Arthur Kane, and drummer Billy Murcia, forming the New York Dolls in 1971. Rivets was later replaced by Sylvain Sylvain, going on to form proto-punk outfit the Brats. The band members weren’t necessarily serious about the Dolls, but after developing a unique musical vision that placed them firmly on the ramshackle side of the Rolling Stones, the Dolls began to developing a loyal following via raucous performances at Max’s Kansas City and the Mercer Arts Center.

The New York Dolls

The Dolls were dismissed by record labels at the time as a less-talented version of the Stones; the band’s frequent onstage vulgarity and tongue-in-cheek penchant for cross-dressing ruffles some corporate feathers, to be sure. Critics first noticed the Dolls after they opened for the Faces in England in 1972, the band subsequently touring the U.K. Tragically, Murcia overdosed on alcohol and Quaaludes during the tour, the Dolls subsequently bringing in drummer Jerry Nolan, who would later join Thunders in the Heartbreakers. Thanks to support from rock critic and Mercury Records A&R man Paul Nelson, the band received a label deal and it was arranged for musician/producer Todd Rundgren to produce the band’s self-titled 1973 debut.

With original songs penned mostly by Johansen with either Thunders or Sylvain, tunes like “Personality Crisis,” “Trash,” and “Jet Boy” created a blueprint for punk rock to follow. A lively cover of Bo Diddley’s “Pills” was provided a similar proto-punk makeover. Given a meager budget to work with, the Dolls nevertheless delivered a rock ‘n’ roll classic; The New York Dolls album was recorded for a mere $17,000 (the bulk of which was probably Rundgren’s fee). The album was deemed a commercial failure, though, peaking at #116 on the Billboard album chart, but its econo-production costs meant that it likely still made money on its 100,000+ sales. Although it has been reported that the album has only moved around 500k copies to date, it’s a steady-seller year-to-year and has since become regarded as one of the most important debut albums of all time, influencing bands on both sides of the ocean like Kiss, the Ramones, the Smiths, the Sex Pistols, the Replacements, and the Damned among many others. Mercury Records must have seen some light at the end of the tunnel, as they approved a second Dolls album.

Recorded and released in 1974 with veteran producer George “Shadow” Morton (The Shangri-Las, Janis Ian, Vanilla Fudge) at the helm, Too Much Too Soon offered a mix of band originals (“Babylon,” “Who Are the Mystery Girls?,” “Chatterbox”) largely written by Johansen and Thunders, and inspired R&B covers like “Stranded In the Jungle,” “Don’t Start Me Talkin’,” and “(There’s Gonna Be A) Showdown.” Although Morton’s polished production smoothed out the band’s raw edges somewhat, critics like Dave Marsh and Robert Christgau were firmly in the Dolls’ corner; sadly, Too Much Too Soon sold less than 100k copies, but likely turned a profit as Mercury had the band lined up to record a third album. A U.S. tour in support of Too Much Too Soon turned into a disaster, with cancelled shows and increased drug and alcohol use by the band creating tensions. Subsequently dropped by Mercury, Thunders and Nolan left in 1975 to form the Heartbreakers, with Johansen and Sylvain carrying on for another year with substitute players before breaking up.

David Johansen In Style

Johansen launched his solo career with a self-titled debut album in 1978; produced by NYC ‘guy at all the best parties’ Richard Robinson along with Johansen, it was released by the CBS-distributed Blue Sky Records label associated with blues-rock guitarist Johnny Winter and his manager, Manhattan club owner Steve Paul. The album included musical guests like Dolls’ guitarist Sylvain, Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry, singer Nona Hendryx, violinist Scarlet Rivera, and Rascals’ keyboardist Felix Cavaliere. Johansen’s critically-acclaimed sophomore effort, In Style, followed a year later; produced by former Bowie guitarist Mick Ronson, it featured guest musicians like Ian Hunter (Mott the Hoople) and Dan Hartman (Edgar Winter Group) as well as Johansen’s old friend Sylvain.

In Style didn’t sell particularly well, but the album yielded lasting songs like “Melody,” “Swaheto Woman,” and “She Knew She was Falling in Love.” Given another bite of the apple by Blue Sky, Johansen recruited South African musician Blondie Chaplin (who had played with the Beach Boys and Rick Danko of the Band) to produce Here Comes the Night. Released in 1981, Here Comes the Night saw Johansen working closely with Chaplin to craft a more commercial sound but, when the album peaked at #180 on the Billboard chart, Blue Sky cut him loose after releasing Live It Up in 1982. The energetic and entertaining live set displayed a portion of Johansen’s enormous onstage charisma on original songs like “Frenchette,” “Melody,” “Funky But Chic” and the Dolls’ tracks “Personality Crisis” and “Stranded In the Jungle,” the album scoring a Top 30 hit with a medley of the Animals’ “We Gotta Get Out of this Place,” “Don’t Bring Me Down,” and “It’s My Life.”

Johansen signed with Passport Records for 1984’s overlooked Sweet Revenge LP which, like virtually all of the singer’s previous albums, received widespread critical acclaim along with modest sales. Johansen had already cooked up his third act, however – the pseudonymous ‘Buster Poindexter’ – a sort of R&B revue bandleader backed by the Uptown Horns. Performing an upbeat mix of pop, swing, jump blues, and novelty tunes, Johansen scored a Top 40 hit LP with 1987’s Buster Poindexter and its single “Hot Hot Hot.” Johansen appeared frequently on Saturday Night Live as part of the house band, and a video for “Hot Hot Hot” received heavy airplay on the MTV cable network. Johansen released four albums under the ‘Buster Poindexter’ persona circa 1987-1997, each exploring a different musical style.

Coaxed by longtime Dolls fan Morrissey of the Smiths to reunite for the 2004 Meltdown Festival in London, the performance by the surviving members of the band – Johansen, Sylvain, and Kane – led to a live album and DVD. Following Kane’s unexpected death of leukemia a few weeks after the festival, Johansen and Sylvain recruited guitarist Steve Conte, bassist Sami Yaffa (Hanoi Rocks), drummer Brian Delaney, and keyboardist Brian Koonin to record the 2006 album One Day It Will Please Us To Remember Even This, which was followed by several festival appearances. This Dolls line-up also recorded 2009’s Cause I Sez So; 2011’s Dancing Backwards In High Heels proved to be the band’s swansong.

David Johansen & the Harry Smiths

Johansen channeled his longstanding love of blues and folk music with the Harry Smiths, a band formed with multi-instrumentalists Brian Koonin, Larry Saltzman, and Kermit Driscoll along with percussionist Joey Baron. Named after music historian Harry Smith, whose 1952 compilation of 1920s and ‘30s country and blues music, The Anthology of American Folk Music, inspired many an aspiring musician in the 1950s and ‘60s, Johansen and the Harry Smiths released two albums – 2000’s David Johansen & the Harry Smiths and 2002’s Shaker – comprised of whip-smart covers of timeless tunes by legends like Lightnin’ Hopkins, Furry Lewis, Son House, Mississippi John Hurt, Sonny Boy Williams, songs that Johansen’s aging voice was more than world-weary enough to sing convincingly.

Over the years, Johansen also dabbled in acting, his expressive face and over-the-top personality leading to roles in the 1988 Bill Murray film Scrooged (as the ‘Ghost of Christmas Past’), Mr. Nanny, Freejack, and Car 54, Where Are You? as well as TV shows like Miami Vice, Oz, and Bill Murray’s Netflix special A Very Murray Christmas. Award-winning filmmaker (and fellow New Yorker) Martin Scorsese directed a documentary film on Johansen for the Showtime cable network, Personality Crisis: One Night Only, which was released in April 2023. Johansen also contributed songs to several compilation albums over the years, including 1984’s A Diamond Hidden In the Mouth of A Corpse, 1994’s September Songs – The Music of Kurt Weill, 2003’s Stormy Weather: The Music of Harold Arlen, and 2005’s Jim White Presents Music From Searching For the Wrong-Eyed Jesus. He also hosted a weekly show for Sirius satellite radio called David Johansen’s Mansion of Fun.

After reading about the New York Dolls in Creem magazine – where they were honored with awards as both the “Best New Group of the Year” and “Worst New Group of the Year” in a reader’s poll – I quickly latched onto the first Dolls LP. While in high school, I’d be invited to parties at a former girlfriend’s house, knowing that I’d show up with a stack of records and, plied with a six-pack of beer, would gladly play DJ all night. As my classmates paired up and disappeared up a hill for extracurricular activities, I’d slap on the New York Dolls album…I got all the way through side one once before somebody came down the hill and demanded that I change the record to something like Billy Joel. I remained a steadfast Dolls fan ever since, and I’ve seen initial dismissal of the New York Dolls as low-rent clones of the Rolling Stones give way to acceptance as one of the most groundbreaking bands in rock ‘n’ roll history.

David Johansen may never have gotten rich, or even received anything more than a modicum of commercial success, but his work with the Dolls and his underrated solo albums continue to find new converts to this day. His music has influenced a heck of a lot of people, which is more than you can say about many of those that came before and after the Dolls. Johansen is a legend and his death makes the world of rock music far less interesting. R.I.P.