Thursday, May 1, 2008

Smoking Popes - Born To Quit (1995)






This band is made up of three Caterer brothers. The band sound like Frank Sinatra fronting a pop punk band ala The Ramones or The Buzzcocks although at times vocalist Josh Caterer sounds like Morrisey and the guy from They Might Be Giants.

The Morrisey-like vocals are definitely on the song "Need You Round" but there is a lack of the depressing tongue and cheek humour so this band come across as far more chirpy than the misunderstood English misery guts. The song "Rubella" is the band's strongest song in my opinion and there is a Rubella youtube video.

Born To Quit

Monday, April 28, 2008

Stisism - Coping With Society




I don't know a whole lot about this New York band who have a 77 punk sound not far from the sound of The Sex Pistols or fellow New Yorkers The Dead Boys but this album is a largely unknown gem.

Allmusic guide wrote: When punk rock took the music world by storm in the late '70s, punk bands ranged from angry socio-political agitators like the Sex Pistols, Sham 69, the Dead Kennedys and the Clash to bands with fun, goofy lyrics such as the Ramones, Stiff Little Fingers and the Dickies. Twenty years later, punk bands still ran the gamut -- some were angrily political, while others just wanted to have fun. Stisism, an East Coast punk band, favored the fun and the humorous on Coping with Society, which first came out on Intensive Scare and was reissued by Man's Ruin in early 1999. Recalling the Pistols, the Buzzcocks and others, Stisism brings a lot of exuberance and bratty aggression to this engaging album. The Pistols have had a heavy influence on Stisism, although their influence is musical more than lyrical. The singing and playing is Pistols-influenced, but lyrically, Stisism has a lot more in common with Stiff Little Fingers and the Ramones. Nutty humor is exactly what you can expect on "It's Not My Fault You Left Your Hair at Home, Dude," "Formaldehyde Baby," "Mr. Slawson and the Teenage Dolls" and other items. Drawing on Peggy Lee's "I'm a Woman" and the Muddy Waters hit "Mannish Boy," the catchy "Bacon Man" starts off as a stop-and-start blues tune before turning into fast, hyper punk. Coping With Society is an album that punk lovers should definitely be aware of. ~ Alex Henderson.

Alex Henderson may have listened to this album but I doubt he's ever listened to Stiff Little Fingers or read their lyrics. This album contains a punked up cover of the Beach Boys' song Vegetables. A few of the songs of this album appear on Stisism's my space page.

Get Stisism - Coping With Society

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Media Blitz (Agressive Records) s/t 7" 1993




This band features Tony Fingers who was in the East LA band Thee Undertakers and now plays guitar in a blues band. I really don't know much about the band but internet searching tells me this band were around for over ten years released a few 7" EPs, had several male vocalists and at least one female vocalist who appears on an album called Daddy's Little Girl and that they chose a frustrating band name to google.



The song Media Blitz which is on this 4 song 7" EP can be heard on the Media Blitz East LA myspace page. Their myspace page states Media Blitz started in 1993 as a thrash/punk band by Tony Fingers (A.K.A. Tony Orange of late 70's O.G. E.L.A. punks Thee Undertakers) and Lil Joe Luna who is now Joe Blitz. Hippie Sal Preciado was on drums. Dave Elwood (formally of Last Round up) on vocals. They debuted their self titled 7 inch E.P. vinyl which got airplay on U.S. college and europe. So Cal. KNAC had a punk show which played the 7 inch often. Dave departed in 1995. Tony and Joe went back on vocals for a while as in the very begining. Sal departed in 1996 to be replaced by Furious George Hernandez on skins. Late 1997 saw the arrival of a female screamer Beast A.K.A. La Bestia who Joe recruited from his early El Monte party days. The band released a C.D. "Daddy's Lil Girl" that got good reviews in Maximum R&R. Her live performances were reviewed as a cross between Alice Bag of The Bags and Wendy O of The Plasmatics. The Band list Black Flag, , Suicidal Tendencies, Plasmatics, Fear, Ramones, D.R.I., Thee Undertakers, The Munsters, Gilligans Island, Sex Pistols, The Germs. O.J. Simpson, Amy Fisher, Joey Butafuko, Rodney King and Uncle Slam as influences.

Just found a youtube clip of Media Blitz with the female vocalist, Beast aka Las Bestia.

Beastwars - IV

After over a year off for various reasons, we have returned solely because we wanted to review the new Beastwars album. I really w...