THE GRUESOMES
Tyrants Of Teen Trash
Ricochet CD
www.ricochetsound.com
The Gruesomes were one of the outstanding bands of the ’80s garage revival, one of the few bands who sounded at least as good as their mid-60s heroes. In 1986 this LP was a marvellous antidote to the popular excesses of the time. I instantly fell in love with the way they couldn’t see for their bowl cuts. 22 years later, the music still excites. Covers of ‘Jack The Ripper’ and ‘The Witch’ have become passé over the years but were a revelation at the time. Elsewhere the band are great, from the Davie Allen style instro ‘Bikers From Hell’ to the crunchy and punchy R&B of originals like ‘For All I Care’ to inspired covers like ‘Unchain My Heart’. From the outset they understood the need for variety and pace.
Unfortunately one of the four bonus cuts is a second version of ‘Jack The Ripper’, and another is the Link Wray instro version. Of the two additional Gruesomes originals, ‘Things She Does To Me’ finds them in a more restrained, poppier mood.
Phil Suggitt
DAVID JOHANSEN
David Johansen/Live It Up
BGO CD
www.bgo-records.com
David Johansen’s solo career has taken some unusual twists and turns since his early days with The New York Dolls, but his self-tilted solo album from 1978 finds him in fine form. The straightforward production and sharp tunes co-written with ex-Doll Sylvain Sylvain (‘Frenchette’, ‘Funky But Chic’) make the album sound like the Dolls without Johnny. Johansen was able to cultivate a streetwise NYC rock style that was based on his proto-punk roots but was more acceptable to the mainstream. Songs like ‘Donna’ with it’s passionate vocal and backing vocals moved closer to Springsteen and Mink De Ville territory.
Johansen continued in a pop direction for ‘82’s live album. Punk purists may have sniffed at ’60s covers, including an Animals medley and Four Tops and Foundations hits, but these rocking versions work and the Dolls’ ‘Personality Crisis’ doesn’t sound out of place at the end of the set.
Phil Suggitt
SHINDIGGERS
Maximum Beat
Off The Hip 2-CD
www.offthehip.co.au
In ancient times, pyramids were developed separately by civilisations thousands of miles apart. In the ’80s, The Medway Milkshakes and Melbourne’s Shindiggers independently forged a manic musical style based on early ’60s British beat with a helping of punk attitude. Basically, if you like one band you are bound to like the other.
This compilation is great value, as it includes 51 songs, virtually everything The Shindiggers’ ever recorded – the early demos, singles, mini–LPs, live cuts and their final CD. The band never wavered from their Star-Club style beat and raw rock‘n’roll. The early demos are no great shakes, but everything else is fine, their own compositions standing proudly with some classic covers. After lots of activity in the mid-80s, the band regrouped for the Surf, Sex CD in 2006, which features a more assured vocal sound and some of their most memorable and exciting tunes.
Let’s face it, a band called The Shindiggers has to be good, right?
Phil Suggitt
THE STEMS
Mushroom Soup
Shock CD
www.shock.com.au
Whenever I think of The Stems I conjure up an image of a bowl cutted, spiky booted garage guy making out on the sofa with a girl who is a big pop fan. The Stems were shining lights of the ‘80s garage scene, with the ability to effortlessly combine a raunchy garage sensibility with genuine pop songwriting talent. This CD compiles all the singles recorded for John Needham’s Citadel label before the band signed with Mushroom records, and very good they are. Richard Lanes’ garage organ powers the excellent ‘Tears Me In Two’ and Dom Mariani’s fine vocals drive ‘Make You Mine’ and the gorgeous ‘Love Will Grow’.
Also included are four solid unreleased tunes shelved when the band left Citadel, notably a potential single, the Who-ish ‘Power Of Love’, plus five alternative demo versions and a video clip.
Phil Suggitt
TOM VERLAINE
Dreamtime
Words From The Front
Both Collectors Choice CDs
www.ccmusic.com
Even after a quarter of century has passed, Tom Verlaine’s guitar lines seem to come from another place entirely. His amazing, angular solos are gloriously powerful, intensely melodic but somehow angry and dangerous. Verlaine always seemed possessed of an alien (or divine?) inspiration that other guitarists would kill for. His vocals are as unique and instantly recognisable as his guitar playing.
1981’s Dreamtime was Verlaine’s second solo LP. Richard Lloyd is no longer present to exchange solos, and all the lead work is by Verlaine. In most other respects the songs sound and feel like Television. The songs, such as ‘There’s A Reason’ and ‘Always’ are really strong, and there is (almost) a pop song in ‘Marie Marie’.
In ’82 critics were less enthusiastic about Days From The Front, recorded with session guitarist Jimmy Rip and Mink de Ville’s rhythm section. With hindsight it is also a fine album and contains one of Verlaine’s finest and most melodic tunes, ‘Postcard From Waterloo’; anyone who likes Dreamtime should get this as well.
Phil Suggitt |
