14 November 2011

So You Used to be a Surfer in Huntington Beach

Holy Casey Royer, punk man, D.I. is back! Well, Ok, maybe it's just their smack-sodden spirit, but here it is, the music of my formative years played enthusiastically and with great vigor by four young dudes from, wait, that can't be right- New York? I could have sworn this came straight outta Huntington, what with the apocalyptic nuclear annihilation lyrics and the wannabe ghoulish guitar that sounds like a Fullerton mini-mall  and those singalong background vocals on the choruses and Johnny's got a problem and he's outta control and note the poor punctuation as we swing back on the pendulum to the dumbass music of our youth that gave us so much pleasure and led to so many bad decisions (dagger earring, I still love you) and no matter how hard we feign maturity by putting unplayed jazz records on the shelves, that old bitch hippocampus speaks to good buddy amygdala and sense memory meets emotion and here come the images of the PCH at night, stopping for twelve-packs of Schaeffer and a slice on the way to some horrible venue where Social Distortion, The Adolescents, Doggy Style, Youth Brigade, and fourteen other crop-haired young bands would get on stage and snarl and prowl and otherwise act all punky and we in our deep intoxication would smash into one another at high speeds and fall down and then wallow in the brotherhood of that outstretched hand and up we'd pop for the next tour and boy did I have to fake any connection to these people but release sweet release and sometimes the band would find it and by miracle they'd be in tune and, well, memory lane can be a funny old street.  Any band that delivers a time machine to that video arcade where the pock-marked acid dealer offered 14 hours of reality variety is a band worth keeping in the keep pile.

11 November 2011

02 November 2011

Missing Monuments- Painted White

Missing Monuments is the new King Louie thang, and it's a pleasant romp through ten pop songs, but   there ain't no 'Gypsy Switch' here, so it's a bit of a letdown. For those not following at home, his majesty put out a record several years ago called Memphis Treet with one killer song on it (and several excellent ones) that trumped anything I'd heard from him on the pop tip (The Persuaders and Kajun SS being whole other things) and hopefully not everything to come. He's a big boy, and I hope he takes care of himself, cuz great pop writers don't come around the block every hangover morning. Anyway, this is fine, but nothing really gets you singing along or tapping your toes with any urgency.  I root for the guy- his voice is endearingly underdog.  But most of these riffs are, in the inimitable words of Lars Ulrich in Some Kind of Monster, stock.  It's nice background music for your coffee and Halloween candy before another day at the gulag, but I doubt I'd pull it out for the late-night shriekalong, and I don't catch myself humming along at odd moments of the day.