1-800-Band

When it comes to contemporary bands that are enamored with the new wave and power pop sounds of the late '70s and early '80s, I tend to judge them on a very instinctive level. If hearing their music gives me those tingles where I feel like I'm a kid again, I know they're doing something right. A case in point is Brooklyn's 1-800-Band (ex Crimson Sweet, by the way). If you told me this band had secured the opening slot on a Cars/Blondie tour in 1980 and somehow stepped through a portal to present times, I wouldn't doubt you. New EP Diver Blue captures the sound and the spirit of turn of the '80s new wave pop and mixes in a touch of '70s arena rock. That's my type of thing all the way - and this band does it well! 

Whereas other bands might employ vintage synth stylings with the intention of being ironic or establishing some sort of retro chic vibe, 1-800-Band aren't trying to be hip in the least. Their music is super fun and highly redolent of wide-eyed adolescence - recalling that time in every person's life when falling in love was the best thing in the world - or the absolute worst. But while "Diver Blue" does take me back to a particular time when power pop and new wave were starting to blend together, ultimately it demonstrates how timeless music like this truly is. There's no expiration date on fun times and classic hooks. These songs should appeal to the young and the young-at-heart alike. Frontman Al Huckabee gladly shares the spotlight with brilliant keyboardist Polly Watson - the former giving these songs their emotional center and the latter stoking the infectious energy that makes this band so incredibly appealing. 

Clearly, "Diver Blue" is "the hit". It's the most straight-forward power pop song on the EP, and it sounds like something that should have been blaring out of swimming pool radios 34 summers ago. But all four tracks have left me wanting more. The slinking, Cars-y "Make A Comeback" sounds like it belongs on the Valley Girl soundtrack, while the new romantic tinged "Many Happy Returns" could have been a senior prom slow jam in the heyday of John Hughes flicks. If I had to name a favorite track, it would be "Here Comes Summer". The title suggests an upbeat, party type song. But actually this is an aching number full of longing and heartache - with the sort of dramatically lovelorn chorus that has me fondly recalling more innocent times in our popular culture. Back in the day, you would hear a song like this and fully expect it to soon dominate the airwaves. Nowadays, I'm just hoping it will get five seconds of exposure on some shitty MTV reality show. It's truly a perfect pop song.

Diver Blue releases today on Almost Ready Records.You can check out a free stream over at Brooklyn Vegan. Check it out!



-L.R.

http://www.1-800-band.com/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/1-800-BAND/121660437844796

Stitches v. Miscalculations!

Talk about a clash of the titans! I can't think of two bands in the world that are better suited to collaborate on a split than The Stitches and Miscalculations. Musically speaking, they are true kindred spirits. When I heard that they'd done a split, I thought that had to be the best idea since the deep-fried Oreo. So, then...does the actual product (out on No Front Teeth Records) live up to expectations? Of course it does! The concept is that both bands take a signature song of theirs and do it two different ways. There's a "punk" side and an "electro" side to this split - each featuring both bands. And what blows my mind is that I don't necessarily prefer the punk side!

The Stitches' contribution to the punk side is a previously unreleased version of "Automatic" mixed by Pete Dee from The Adicts. Miscalculations answer with "Factory Life" - a great track in an early Buzzcocks meets Warsaw vein. Even if those had been the only two songs on the record, I would have been totally happy. I love this alternate mix of "Automatic", and "Factory Life" is one of Miscalculations' best songs to date. But the electro side pushes this split from good to truly great. Both tunes from the punk side are reinterpreted in a synth-punk/new wave fashion, and it's like they're entirely different songs! The Jet Set electro version of "Automatic" is the closest thing I've heard to The Screamers in a long time, featuring one of Mike's snottiest vocals ever and utilizing synthesizer with the seeming intention of ripping open your eardrums. Brilliance! Meanwhile, "Factory Life" gets an icy Gary Numan style makeover. In art, film, and music alike, I've always been a huge fan of 1970s visions of the future. That's what this version of "Factory Life" reminds me of, especially combined with the stark minimalism of the packaging and artwork. I'm struggling mightily to determine which of the two versions I prefer. Five years ago, I would have picked the punk version just on principle. Today, I'm calling it a tie. Good on Miscalculations for constructing a song that works equally well in both modes!

As you might expect, vinyl copies of this highly collectable split are going fast. So get on it now it if you still need a copy. Having received word that Miscalculations have already completed a second LP, I am understandably psyched! Hopefully we'll be hearing that in a few months. In the meantime, be sure check out their first one if you haven't already!



-L.R.

http://miscalculations.bandcamp.com/album/7-split-with-the-stitches 
http://www.nofrontteeth.co.uk/

The Top 13 Albums of 1994

Having traveled back to 2004 earlier this year, I now set my time machine for 20 years ago. For me personally, 1994 was a highly pivotal year. In '94, I got heavily into a lot of music that inspired me to start doing zines the very next year. I used to cite 1995-2000 as the golden age of the "punk rock revival". But once I started taking a closer look, I realized that 1993 was the definitive start of punk music getting really awesome again. And '94 kept things going strong. I bought quite a few of these releases when they were new, and they strongly influenced the type of music I would listen to and write about going forward. Others I came to love in later years as I continued to educate myself on the wonders of garage, punk, and power pop music. Sitting here dignified and old (ha ha), it's hard to believe that I was 22-23 years old when these albums were released. If you had told me back then that I'd still be listening to all this stuff 20 years later, I would have said you were nuts! I think that says a lot about the staying power of punk rock music. It also says a lot about how good these particular records are!

Alright! On to the list....

13. D Generation- self titled
Coming out as it did at the height of a zealous backlash against all things glam, this release was sadly misunderstood and poorly marketed. It was largely written off as some kind of hair metal thing, and D Generation's mix of Hanoi Rocks and the Dead Boys failed to connect with the alternative nation. The glossy production didn't help, and it was no surprise that the band re-recorded a lot of these songs when they made the much harder-edged No Lunch two years later. But this album is worth hearing just for songs like "Sins Of America", "Stealing Time", and "Feels Like Suicide".

12. Boris The Sprinkler- 8-Testicled Pogo Machine
Boris would go on to make better albums - but this one will always be my "sentimental favorite". I like that's it's all over the place in terms of musical style, and honestly it has really held up well over the years. If I were making an ultimate Boris mix, "Girls Like U", "She's Got A Lighter", and the classic "Drugs & Masturbation" would all be on it.

11. Sicko- You Can Feel The Love In This Room
When I think of the classic albums of '90s pop-punk, I almost always think of Lookout! Records. But here's one that wasn't on Lookout yet no doubt rates as one of the defining landmarks of the genre. Fast and lovably dorky tuneage, perfectly produced by Kurt Bloch. If hearing "The Sprinkler" doesn't brighten your day, I gotta wonder about you.

10. Moral Crux- I Was A Teenage Teenager
Moral Crux was one of the bands most responsible for getting me into the throwback '77 punk thing that became my niche in the late '90s. This band had The Clash's soul and Generation X's hooks. I Was A Teenage Teenager was the fourth Moral Crux LP - and one of its best!

9. Pink Lincolns- Suck & Bloat
Snotty three-chord punk rock par excellence from these criminally underrated Floridians.

8. The Humpers- Journey To The Center Of Your Wallet 
Do yourself a favor and buy everything this band ever recorded.

7. Queers- Beat Off
Man, these were the days when The Queers ruled the hardest! Seems like they were putting out a great record just about every year. Beat Off remains one of the band's classic albums. "Drop The Attitude Fucker", "Ben Weasel", and "All Screwed Up" are all-time favorites of mine.

6. The Figgs- Lo-Fi At Society High
Without a doubt, The Figgs have been one of the greatest live rock n' roll bands of the past 25 years, and they've had a long and fruitful career in the studio as well. But while I'd recommend just about anything this band has ever put its name on, this debut LP (they had two tapes prior to that) is where you have to start. Great power pop/alt rock with punky energy and clever lyrics channeling the angry young men of new wave. When I want to listen to The Figgs, this is the album I usually reach for.

5. Green Day - Dookie
Can you believe it's been 20 years since this album was released? It was fashionable to hate on it back then for entirely stupid reasons. But I loved it from the very first note, and still do to this day. If there's a holy trinity of '90s pop-punk albums, I put this album in it along with The Queers' Love Songs for the Retarded and Screeching Weasel's My Brain Hurts.

4. New Bomb Turks- Information Highway Revisited
The Turks, who released one of the greatest punk albums of all-time one year earlier, came right back with another sonic kick in the teeth. A classic in its own right!

3. The Waldos- Rent Party
The closest thing we'll ever get to a second Heartbreakers album. Hell, it might have actually been a slightly better record than L.A.M.F.! Produced by Andy Shernoff.  

2. Teengenerate - Get Action
Often imitated but never duplicated, this is the standard by which all trashy garage-punk is measured. 

1. Rip Offs - Got A Record
Let me tell you: it was a very tough call between #1 and #2. If I were to re-do this list in three months, it easily could end up the other way around. You're talking about arguably the two greatest garage punk albums ever made. But in the end, I kept going back to the songs. "Cops", "Zodiac", "She Said Yeah"...that's the stuff! Teengenerate might have been more sonically ferocious, but I give The Rip Offs the slight edge in the tunes department.

So, who did I forget?

-L.R.

Finderskeepers!

After undergoing months of exhausting research and boldly applying several advanced mathematical formulas, I have determined that there are currently over 10,000 great bands in Ottawa. I know what you're thinking. Isn't that estimate kind of low? Perhaps. I will check the data again in another week.

The latest Ottawa band on my radar is Finderskeepers. Their new 7" is called Pack Your Bags, and it's one of the best EPs I've heard so far in 2014. Finderskeepers fit in pretty well with the whole garage/power pop/punk thing that's so hot in their hometown. Yet at the same time, they have their own sound. They play fast, hard-edged punk songs with tons of melody and gruff, impassioned vocals. Their recordings possess a rawness that will attract the "garage" crowd, but really they just come off as straight-up punk rock. I hear echoes of both classic punk/hardcore acts (Zero Boys, Wipers, early Husker Du) and more contemporary standard-bearers of melodic punk (Dillinger Four/Jawbreaker). Yet I don't get the sense that they're trying to sound like any of those bands. Every song clocks in right around two minutes, and from start to finish the material is damn solid. Opener "It Could All End Tonight" is pretty much the epitome of a sing-along anthem, while the title track sounds like something from the heyday of Naked Raygun. And "Push" has to be the ballsiest pop-punk song I've heard in years! Check out a free stream over at Finderskeepers' Bandcamp page. If you like what you hear, grab yourself a marbled vinyl copy while supplies last!



-L.R.

http://finderskeepersband.bandcamp.com/ 
https://www.facebook.com/fkottawa 

The Bidons are back!

I always love it when a band shows great promise and then proceeds to fulfill it beyond my expectations. You may recall I was quite high on an Italian band called The Bidons a while back. I was so impressed with their throwback '60s garage sound that I suspected they may have been time travelers. Well, The Bidons have followed that very good debut with a truly great LP! Heeding the "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" adage, these cats continue to rip out primitive, high energy rock n' roll that brings to mind past greats like The Sonics, Standells, Seeds, and Shadows of Knight. There was little attempt here to mess with a winning formula. But on the strength of a sharpened songwriting acumen and some stellar production from Ferdinando Farro, Back To The Roost advances The Bidons to the top of the neo garage heap!

Recorded live in the studio, this ten-songer plays to the strengths of a band that has built up its chops by slugging it out in the bars and clubs for nearly a decade. Plain and simple, these guys rock! As always, you can expect crazy good drumming, some killer guitar solos, and a singer who always picks the right time to let out a howl. And while I thought the group's choice of cover songs last time was really cool, I'm very impressed that an album full of original material turned out even better! The songs are mostly in the neighborhood of two minutes - with nary a ballad in sight! Tracks like "Hell, Yeah!" and "Shout It Out (Burn It Down)" are classic three-chord jolters that will quickly have you jumping around your bedroom like a maniac. And while the primary influences remain unchanged, this album really plays up the British Invasion and R & B elements of '60s garage rock. "Raw, Naked & Wild" is like a mash-up of The Sonics and early Kinks and is probably my favorite Bidons song to date. Equally good is the title track - a bluesy smoker that the Pretty Things or Yardbirds would have been proud to have written. Even with minor dabblings in Stoogey proto-punk ("Grinning Feeling") and psychedelic rock ("Psychotic Direction"), Back To The Roost is as pure of a rock n' roll record as you could ever hope to hear. Farro does an amazing job of making the album sound like it could have been produced in the '60s, and I can't name a single track that should have been dropped.

Given that The Bidons have made the consummate garage rock album, it's hard to imagine them being able to top Back To The Roost. But at this point, I won't dare doubt them! The band's brand-new lineup has reworked three tracks from the album for a live in the studio EP that releases today. Check out The Bidons' Facebook page for more info!

 
-L.R.

http://thebidons.bandcamp.com/ 
https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Bidons/53575329128 

Disguster!

Given that I attempted a retirement from writing between late 2007 and mid 2011, I missed a lot of great music while I was out of the game. So one of the things I'd like to do with this blog from time to time is to get caught up on some of the essential stuff I missed. Over the next couple of months, I'll be writing quite a bit about Zodiac Killer Records. Looking at the list of releases that have come out on ZKR in recent years, I definitely put this label among the very best in the punk world. ZKR has worked with everyone from legends like Electric Frankenstein and The Supersuckers to international sensations like Dead Vikings and Sonic Negroes to modern-day greats like The Hitchhikers and Stiletto Boys. I fully support Ron's mission to keep punk music dirty and dangerous. And one of the most representative releases of what his label is all about has to be Disguster's superb 2009 album Not So Sweet.

Disguster is notoriously one of the most acclaimed live bands in southern California. If you enjoy the gloriously unwholesome stylings of the Dead Boys and Dwarves or the classic SoCal sounds of The Humpers and Black Flag, this is definitely a band for you. I also hear strong hints of Bon Scott era AC/DC, which can never be a bad thing. Factor in two killer guitarists, a couple of Hitchhikers, and a creepy degenerate peeping Tom front man named KC, and you've got yourself some first rate sleazy punk rock n' roll! What I like about Not So Sweet is that it takes the wildfire energy the band is known for on stage and finds a way to capture it in the studio. Close your eyes while you're listening to "End of the End", and you're immediately transported to some club or dive bar that's about to have its roof blown off. And while I love the full-on ferocity of this track and the face-smashing cover of Led Zeppelin's "Communication Breakdown", this is far from a one-dimensional record. Not So Sweet finds Disguster working with a number of different tempos and really showing off their songwriting chops. "Feelin With A Dealin" is up there with the best of The Humpers' stuff, while "Secret Shame" is truly a punk classic of its time. And even if you've never ingested an illicit chemical in your life, you'll be hard pressed not to jump out of your seat and shout along loudly to the chorus of "Drugs". It's that catchy.

As the name suggests, Disguster is not a band for the easily offended. If you're ultra-PC or prefer your punk rock to be "nice", you might wanna steer clear. Not So Sweet is appropriately named, and it's darn near a masterpiece of its genre. This is punk music the way it was meant to sound - raw and nasty, with real guts and a sick sense of humor. I'm embarrassed to have been unaware of this great album for so long, but I've been making up for lost time in recent days...with the volume cranked way up! Check out http://www.zodiackillerrecords.com/ for ordering information!



-L.R.

http://www.zodiackillerrecords.com/ 
https://www.facebook.com/pages/DISGUSTER/97402473773 
http://www.reverbnation.com/disguster 

On blogging...

In this day and age when any idiot can be a music blogger, it's perfectly logical to ask what role people like me should play. Should we be cheerleaders? Promoters? Critics? Entertainers? Are we doing a disservice to bands if we fail to offer constructive critiques of their music? Are we pompous jerks if we do offer constructive critiques of their music? Ultimately, I'd say it all depends on the intentions and goals of each blogger. I can't speak for anyone else who does the sort of thing I do. I can only tell you what I try to do with F & L. And what I try to do is to merely bring attention to music that people might enjoy. Which is why I only write about music that I genuinely like.

In no way at all do I consider myself a critic. For many years, I attempted to be one. And I am highly ashamed of every negative word I've ever written about any band in the past. Bands put their heart and soul into creating music, and they certainly don't deserve to have their efforts demeaned by some pretentious asshole who doesn't really know what he's talking about. I have no personal opposition to the idea of music criticism. I think when it's done well, honest criticism can be very constructive to bands. But I feel the person issuing the critique should be a working musician with technical knowledge and experience in that world. Me? I'm just a fan.

To me, part of what makes underground music unique is how we discover so much of it through word of mouth. I can think of lots of my favorite bands of both all-time (Replacements, The Boys) and present day (The Cry!, L.A. Drugz) that I came to discover entirely because friends went to the trouble of turning me on to them. I am so thankful for that and eager to pay it forward. I am neither qualified nor inclined to judge the "worth" of music. But as a music lover who finds everyday life greatly enriched by the joy of rock n' roll, I'm most definitely inclined to publicly share what I like. In the old days, I heard songs I liked and put them on mixed tapes for my friends. Now I put up links to streaming tracks on a personal blog. It's essentially the same thing.

I've been hearing from a lot of bands and labels lately, and I am deeply humbled by that. I feel bad that I don't have time to write about all the music that is brought to my attention. And I feel bad when I don't like something enough to review it. That said, if you've got a piece of music that you do want me to hear, I promise I will at least give it a fair listen with an open mind. I only ask that all submissions be digital. I am not comfortable accepting physical submissions since I know I cannot guarantee a positive review (or any review at all).

Thanks to all of you who take the time to stop by my insignificant corner of the blogosphere. Perhaps I still haven't mastered the concept of keeping my reviews short and letting the music speak for itself. But trust me: I'm working on it!

-L.R.