Since late '90s/early 2000s punk rock is my jam, I am thrilled about Baltimore's glam-punk heroes The Beatings finally getting the full retrospective treatment. If you've been on this ride with me from the beginning, you may recall me flipping my shit for The Beatings'
Kiss on the Cheek EP circa 25 years ago. And while my prognostications of The Beatings becoming the next huge band in American punk rock never came true, Adam T. is still going strong with one of the best bands out there, the mighty New Brutarians. So whether you think of The Beatings as part of Adam T.'s origin story, one of the best and most overlooked of the later '90s old school punk revivalists, or a mainstay of the Baltimore punk scene back in the day, the new digital collection
1997-2007 is well worth your time and attention. As the title suggests, this album compiles material that was recorded and released from the late '90s through the early-to-mid 2000s. It includes the songs from all three of the band's 7" releases: "The Ballad Of Jimmy & Jenny" (WAX/Telegraph Records),
Kiss on the Cheek (Pelado Records), and the
Solid Gold picture disc (Glass Manacle Records). It also includes The Beatings' cover of The Boys' "First Time," which was originally released on Pelado's cult classic
Three Minute Heroes compilation. Also included are "Pretty Face (Born Too Late)" and "Like a Broken Shoe" from the band's 1997 demo tape, a live recording of "Party In Berlin" from New Year's Eve 1998, and some demos from Adam's bands Heavy Metal Kitchen and Treasure Island. At 23 tracks in one hour, this is a massive collection for longtime fans or anyone interested in the music Adam made prior to The New Brutarians.
I was hardly the only reviewer giving The Beatings their flowers in the early 2000s. Some noteworthy lines of praise included "If Duran Duran wanted to be Motörhead and not Roxy Music", "The Bay City Rollers meets the Dwarves", "Better than a boot to the ear hole" and "The NY Dolls on Crack!" The magic of The Beatings was that there wasn't really another band out there quite like them. They were playing sleazy, glammy '70s-style punk with an unlikely mix of bubblegum, new wave, and hard rock influences. It had been a long time since I had listened to The Beatings, so the release of 1997-2007 has been an occasion for me to revisit these songs and decide if my younger self had any idea what he was talking about. By the time I got through "Kiss on the Cheek" and "Ghetto Blaster," I was able to assert that, at least in the case of The Beatings, I wasn't totally full of shit back then! These tracks really hold up — as do "Rollercoaster Girl," "The Ballad Of Jimmy & Jenny," and "Medicine." I don't recall ever owning or hearing the Solid Gold 7", but "New Wave Love" is a stone cold ripper.
The beauty of the digital music revolution is that old records don't have to be lost to the dustbin of history. And we don't have to play the "You had to be there!" game. Even if you had never heard of The Beatings before, if you like trashy punk rock with a heavy glam influence, it's likely you'll be really into this compilation. I know there's so much music out there to listen to, but I truly believe that there's a significant audience for this album in 2026. It will warm my heart if a few of my influential friends play some of these tracks on their radio shows or if a couple of you end up discovering The Beatings for the first time and genuinely liking what you hear. I remember getting into punk in the '90s and thinking that all those old punk records from 20 years prior were ancient. Now we are three decades removed from the new bands I was into then! Will there be a '90s punk revival? Let's make it happen while there's still time!
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