Rolling Past Expiry Hard Rock 2010

Or okay, looking at the video (featuring Imogne Coca fwiw) on youtube (which convinces me the song was actually meant to be serious), I'm thinking "Bag Lady" should have at least made my disco-metal appendix -- fast synth-beats underneath are very backstreet leather-bar Hi-NRG. Also, the video version runs 4:26; album mix lasts two minutes longer.

i never got those smog veil releases :((((((((((((((((((((

i liked bag lady a lot, but i was completely obsessed by aeiou. i played that 12 inch a ton when it came out. never bought the album! don't know why. maybe it was just years later when i would see it in dollar bins and by then i just wasn't curious enough. how many songs are on it? did they have to do a lot of padding to get to album length?

speaking of prog-influenced new wave, i've been enjoying Magazine enormously this week. those albums are really hitting me in a good way. in a way that maybe they didn't years ago. never really thought about it, but howard devoto must have been a huge peter hammill fan.

Interesting band called Nadine The Band - well, what's interesting about them is that of the nine acts listed on allmusic as recording a track called "Interesting," only two had their "Interesting" streamed on YouTube, and theirs was the best. It's not on their MySpace, from the sound of which they're a Long Island rock band circa 1978 just discovering this New Wave thing though what they really play is wailing rock. Except they're actually a California band circa right now.

Don't think I received the Pistol Whip; did get the Tin Huey and the Easter Monkeys archival CDs. Latter is glam-art hard rock, not unlike the Electric Eels though not as ferocious or ear-shattering; I like the attitude but the singer did need to stay in tune more. Pretty good anyway. I like the Huey too, also like whatever Ralph Carney albs they send my way, sorta jazz-reggae grabbaggers that manage to avoid the clichés of jazz and reggae.

Easter Monkeys are better and Nadine The Band worse than my descriptions make them seem. I'm listening to "Nailed To The Cross" on the Easter Monkeys alb, good groove and rumble from the bass, and Jim Jones dive-bombing excellently on guitar.

OK, overall that Easter Monkeys album is extremely spotty, and ratty and bare of thread as well, but I do like the spirit.

The Runaways is coming to the art house Laemmle in Pasadena. Was just down there today to see
North Face, something you won't want to see if you demand even slight cheer at the end of your moviehouse investment. So Runaways potential audience is fairly restricted, regardless of reviews. It will rope in some of the retirees because the bargain matinee rate is so good, they'll come to see anything.

This is bit of a 'kick me' placard.

========
LOS ANGELES, CA (FEBRUARY 17, 2010) – Trainwreck, fronted by Tenacious D’s Kyle Gass and “Lee of the D” announced today that they will go off the rails this month in support of their latest CD, The Wreckoning.

Trainwreck has been described by Gass as a “cornucopia of rock and a 5-headed hydra of pleasure”. Beginning on February 27, Trainwreck’s classic/prog/Southern boogie wreck and roll extravaganza will head out on tour beginning at Dipiazza’s in Long Beach. Mere days later, the band will cut a swath a mile wide from smoggy Southern California to Sin City and onto the southern United States. After that – they’ll head to the Midwest and back again to the Rocky Mountains. Confirmed tour dates are:

02/27 @ Dipiazza’s, Long Beach, CA
03/01 @ Beauty Bar, Las Vegas, NV
03/02 @ Green Room, Flagstaff, AZ
03/04 @ Launchpad, Albuquerque, NM
03/05 @ VZD, Oklahoma City, OK
03/06 @ The Village, Little Rock, AR
03/07 @ 3rd & Lindsley, Nashville, TN
03/09 @ Vinyl, Atlanta, GA
03/10 @ Workplay Theater, Birmingham, AL
03/12 @ Frankie’s, Toledo, OH
03/13 @ Martyr’s, Chicago, IL
03/14 @ The Basement, Columbus, IL
03/16 @ The Firebird, St. Louis, MO
03/17 @ The Riot Room, Kansas, MO
03/18 @ Larimer Lounge, Denver, CO

“The Wreckoning is nothing short of a Trainwreck, in the best possible way,” said John Barthomew Shredman of Trainwreck. “After seven years of playing music together, touring all over the world, and recording a number of live albums and EP's we finally decided it was time to release our full-length debut. We cannot wait to see all of you on the road in the coming month. So keep your ear-fannies wide and your butt-flaps wider because we're about to ram this train into places you didn't know it could go. Prepareth yourselves!”

The Wreckoning is Trainwreck’s latest 15-song release that features instant classics such as
“Milk The Cobra”, “Bothered & Hot” and “El Mustachio”. All tracks highlight the bands par-tay credo. Case in point, the video for “Brodeo”, a tale of man-on-man ‘bonding’ could very well be the band's manthem. Lyrics touch on the finer points of beer pong, chips and dip and lots of energetic men taking their shirts off at a pool party sans chicks. It’s a visual Broverload to be sure.

Trainwreck’s absurdist comedy stage banter and lyrics are derived from characters they’ve developed within the band; essentially living caricatures of themselves. Never ones to shy away from big guitars (or occasional flute fugues and fantasy), Trainwreck have earned themselves fans all over the globe headlining venues in the US, Canada, the UK and Australia. They have supported bands such as Reverend Horton Heat, Vida Blue (Page from Phish), Blues Traveler and have performed on The Jimmy Kimmel Show and Current TV.

ABOUT TRAINWRECK
Trainwreck is: Kyle Gass (aka Klip Calhoun) from Tenacious D, Jason Reed (aka “Lee of the D” & biker hayseed Darryl Donald), John Konesky (aka John Bartholomew Shredman), John Spiker (aka Boy Johnny) and Nate Rothacker (aka Dallas St. Bernard). The band thrives on tours that have occasionally left melted faces, busted ear-fannies and the occasional bastard child in their wake. Their latest release is The Wreckoning.

=========

With "milk the cobra" seems they're trying for the always elusive like-Turbonegro-but-not-sodomites
thing.

Hole in London last night. Lex was there and said that Courtney delivered a show that was tight, focused, and fierce.

Easter Monkeys album is extremely spotty, and ratty and bare of thread as well, but I do like the spirit

Me too. I also like how the opening cut, "Take Another Pill," is an unabashed "Immigrant Song" rip (reminds me of Heart's "Barracuda" oddly enough), and I've always thought "Underpants" ranks with history's all-time great Fruit Of The Loom odes (though I might actually prefer Cobra Verde's '90s cover version, tbh.) And right, the cranked-up guitar chaos in tracks like "Nailed To the Cross" and "Power" is pretty cool. But yeah, the thing still sounds really murky overall -- which no doubt can be partially attributed to so much of it being recorded live, or onto eight-track analog tape. Mostly, it's just hard to hear the songs.

Not sure if this is the place for this, but thanks to Scott's recommendation I picked up this record in Houston last weekend.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_8-9TjeeuxLU/SmmzFSixa2I/AAAAAAAAAYE/RV1Hr_fc2fw/s400/Easta_of_Eden_Front.jpg
Man does it Rock. Maybe this is doesn't fit this thread though, just wanted to say thanks Scott.

my pleasure! love that album.

Lita Ford's Wicked Wonderland isn't what one expects. For a self-release, it gathered an astonishing number of reviews, about 80, on Amazon. Seemingly this was a consequence of old time fans panning it hard and an assembled 'street team' used to astroturf the rating back to mediocrity. If you go out to Amazon, there's a two-peak curve in the review skew. Lots of five stars and an equal number of one star avoids.

This, for example, is standard for the one stars and it is not kind:

Lyrically, this is a sad attempt by two borderline elderly people trying to be sexy and shocking. While the Lita Ford of the 1980's might have gotten away with this if it was done with more talent, the turkey necked, grey haired Lita of 2010 only serves to make these lyrics more revolting.

That's overstated and 'borderline elderly' is just mean. The lyrics of all the songs, which are virtually all one word titles, simply aren't interesting enough, even in a bad way, to pay attention to.

The worst quality of it is the product of Lita's husband, someone who was the singer in Nitro. Nitro? I remember the name, nothing else. Third or fourth tier something-or-other.

They live on an island in the Caribbean and this, for instance, generates songs about sex and one called "Patriotic SOB." This is doing what you know of but if that is personally great but not excitingly or eloquently translated, you get this.

The Nitro guy growls, Lita sings, all on tunes that are basically one riff vamps with sequencers
adding seasoning. It's a fairly lazy approach to composition since sequencing tools are supposed to help you write songs -- that's the philosophy in something like Roger Linn's Adrenalinn -- not dictate
all the songs on an album length. Even if you are going for a semi-industrial vibe which Wicked Wonderland dabbles in. It's really not an industrial record, though. Lita Ford still sounds too nice and 80's arena for that.

There is a lot of good to great arena rock guitar on it but most of it is not memorable after you listen.

The title cut is fair to good as is the kickoff number. In a few other places it sounds like some of the Ted Nugent songs you can't remember from Love Grenade, either. Not bad but ...

Love is blind and that's the only reason one can think of for LF to have made this. It's not quite as good as her first two Lita Ford Band albums, records which were serviceable hard rock but really short on things to remember, except for the song "Dancing on the Edge."

Plus, it has CD disease. It's too long, too much, needed a hefty edit.

Not as poor as old Cherie Currie albums. Not as good as And Now ... The Runaways which was pretty mediocre. Not as good as anything in her old catalog. Some extra points for trying the elusive quality of 'growth' on for size. I would imagine you wouldn't hear much from this in any tours she does in the hinterland ag show circuit.

Well, on Twitter I said "She can still play, but she still can't sing, and the production's more Rob Zombie than Runaways." Then I got paid to interview her (nice lady) and wrote this piece. I haven't revisited the album since writing the story, though I do have some of her earlier stuff in my iPod.

it has CD disease. It's too long, too much, needed a hefty edit.

Ha ha -- Well, pretty sure there was an advance promo EP that circulated several months before the album. (Though unfortunately, I could barely make it through the EP, either.)

That was a nice interview, Phil, handled with a deft touch.

When I read the reviews on Amazon I expected to hear something like Stuck Mojo -- which I actually like. But I didn't feel it had much in the way of a nu-metal feel and -- like said -- the industrial was pretty light. I'll probably listen to it some more but doubt it will make a difference. For something heavy it felt ephemeral and tossed off although they probably don't believe they tossed it off. She probably do with being less isolated for the next kick at the can. Music to sell boutique porn store kit to is a market but a little too niche.

Still sampling old Mink Deville LPs when I can find them for a buck (see last year's thread), and turns out his/their self-titled debut from 1977 is by far the best one I've come across, and I suspect that I'm likely to come across. Also the hardest rocking, thanks to "One Way Street," "Gunslinger," "Cadillac Walk" (later done by Moon Martin), and "She's So Tough," which variously find their grooves in the vicinity of louder Velvet Underground stuff, John Lee Hooker, and the Shadows Of Knight's "Gloria." "One Way Street" also has Willy Deville screeching in a convincing high register somewhere midway between John Fogerty and Nazareth's Dan McCafferty. But best/most memorable song is still "Spanish Stroll," which starts out with a Lou Reed talk rhythm then turns into a bilingual walk through the barrio. Whole thing is very Lower East Side obsessed, too, from opener "Venus of Avenue D" on.

From around '87.

http://www.dickdestiny.com/b52paintingsm.JPG

http://dickdestiny.com/S_Air_C_by_Dick_Destiny_and_the_Highway_Kings.mp3

Phil -- WTF? How can you say that armored saint were never a metal band? Symbol of Salvation and Revelation are undeniably metallic, even if they have some hard rock flourishes.

Armored Saint has to be metal, as they were always on the "Ma Ma Ma Ma Metalshop" radio show back in the 80s. Doesn't matter who else they would be interviewing, they would always be playing some live Armored Saint stuff.

Some tuff gurls:

Genya Ravan And I Mean It (Mainman 1979) Her second and highest-charting (#106) and I think last album; never heard the first, and I’m pretty sure I’ve never listened to a Ten Wheel Drive album. She was 27 (born in 1942) when it came out, though Christgau calls her “teen-identified” for some reason. Starts out very hot, with “Pedal To Metal,” about getting the hell out of dodge in the time of hairspray cans, and sounding like Suzi Quatro making an early Patti Smith move. Never matches that again, though goofy rocking boogie-woogie of “Roto Root Her” on Side Two comes closest. Otherwise, hard rock guitars are only intermittent; I’d say the sensibility here is as much Bette Middler bath-house cabaret nostalgia for early ‘60s girl-groups and doo-woppers, as filtered through Ellen Foley on Meat Loaf’s first album maybe; “I Won’t Sleep On The Wet Spot No More” goes into a undisguised surprise disco break in the middle just like Loaf’s “Paradise By The Dashboard Light,” but still isn’t as funny or provocative as its title pretends it is. And in general Ravan signals her belting way too much to actually put the lyrics over; there’s this late ‘70s Noo Yawk white-person identification with old soul music she doesn’t nearly have the vocal finesse for. (Actually, Mink Deville has that problem too – a soul trio called the Immortals backs up some of his debut, but those are some of the record’s most fast-forwardable parts.) Still like this better than the Foley LP I found last year, though. Ballad duet with Ian Hunter that starts Side Two, “Junkman” (not to be confused with Patti Labelle and the Blue-Belles’ 1962 “Sold My Heart To The Junkman” I don’t think) isn’t great but isn’t bad either. Same goes for most of the rest.

Karen Lawrence & The Pins Girls’ Night Out (RCA, 1981) Yeah, her of 1994, making a new wave move, still Jack Douglas produced but even less hard rock than that band’s second album. More campy turn of the ‘80s girl-group-era nostalgia in the LP cover prom-dress packaging, in the okay cover of Bryan Hyland’s “Sealed With A Kiss,” and maybe in the hairspray mentions in “Blondes,” the shortest and probably catchiest song, about how girls who use hydrogen peroxide have more fun than Karen. But mostly what she’s doing here is diving whole hog into operatic vibrato Lene Lovich hiccup warble mode, which works best when the music gets similarly dance-oriented and herky-jerky, in “I Won’t Stop” and the Sparksy “March of the Pins” (about cities filled with blind conformists, though less drab than that sounds.) Title track is in the tradition of the hundreds of other “Girls Night Out” songs of several genres once discussed somewhere on this board (one of which was the one by Precious Metal, which was better than Karen’s is.) But I’d estimate half the album is more watered-down corporate adult contemporary new wave, maybe toward what the Motels or Til Tuesday started hitting with a year or four later, though their hits had more hooks. So a marginal keeper, at best.

Fanny Rock And Roll Survivors (Casablanca, 1974) By far my favorite of these three, and given that it’s their fifth album, I was under the impression they should have been washed up by then. Don’t think that anymore. Impressed by how committed to funk they are, but it sounds like their biggest funk influence is, uh, Uriah Heep, judging from Nicole Barclay’s keyboards in the almost-disco “Beggar Man” and fancy “Rock ‘n’ Roll Survivors” (about still being around after five albums, I guess, when all those other rock’n’rollers died with needles in their arms.) In “Rockin’ (All Nite Long),” probably the heaviest cut (and one of four songwrite-credited to Suzi Quatro’s sister Patti, who’d apparently just joined on guitar – drummer Brie Howard was new too I gather), Barclay sounds more like she’s going for a Jon Lord sound. “I’ve Had It” is real hooky la-la-la glam rock, not far from what Suzi was debuting with the same year. (Jasper/Oliver actually list this album as ’75, but the cover says ’74.) Two covers – Stones’ “Let’s Spend The Night Together” (which they harmonize sexily enough but too many other people have done it so who cares) and the Jaynetts’ pre-psych 1963 girl-group classic “Sally Go Round The Roses,” which might be the most danceable thing here. They do that one with no irony at all, fortunately -- smart, since it’s a devastating song. But the best known track on the album – and one of the more memorable, actually – is “Butter Boy,” which is all burlesque come-on: More Bette Midler camp, in other words (written by bassist Jean Millington, who’d later marry Earl Slick apparently. Her sister, guitarist June, was no longer in the band, maybe already headed toward her lesbian folk career.) “Butter Boy” was actually Fanny’s biggest pop hit – went #29, where “Charity Ball” had peaked at #40 in 1971. And “I’ve Had It” got to #79, which makes this the only Fanny album with two Hot 100 hits, although the album itself didn’t chart. It was their last one.

Uh, wait: 1979 - 1942 = 37, not 27. (Is that possible? '42 is what Joel Whitburn lists, anyway. Which makes Xgau calling her teen-identified even more perplexing.)

And actually, according to Wiki, she would have been 39: "Genya Ravan, aka Goldie Zelkowitz (born Genyusha Zelkowitz, April 19, 1940, in Łódź, Poland) is an American rock singer and producer. She is the former lead singer of The Escorts, Goldie & the Gingerbreads, and Ten Wheel Drive.
Genyusha Zelkowitz arrived in the USA in 1949, accompanied by her parents and one sister. She had two brothers, who died. These were the only family members who had survived the Nazi Holocaust in Europe."

Supposedly, in the '60s, Goldie & The Gingerbreads were the first all-female rock band signed to a major label. (Fanny were just the second.) I've never heard them. They were around from 1962 to 1967, according to Wiki, and then Ravan was in Ten Wheel Drive from 1968 to 1974.

Bug ugh for Fanny's Rock n Roll Survivors. It was done at a time when it wanted to be more hard rock and thought it was more hard rock than old Fanny and could have been more hard rock and wasn't.

I've had it on a couple times, can't listen to it all the way through.

The Rundgren-produced Mother's Pride which was the last by the working band was as close as they came to a glam record. They'd been on tour with Slade in Britain. It was the album that rocked the most, too.

The rest of the guitarly interesting material with women singing loud and bashing is about evenly spread between the third, Fanny Hill, and the second, Charity Ball. Charity Ball is a bit of a boogie but it doesn't tear loose like the men were doing at the same time and part of the blame for this lays with producer Richard Perry who wanted them to be a pop group above all else. He really often killed the guitars.

The albums are good song wise but they gravitate toward a sophisticated California sound, like the band would be good to back a Barbara Streisand rock album without causing upset. It was a pretty conservatie approach and it hurt them, I think.

The Rhino Handmade Box lays it all out. One of my favorite box sets, actually, because of the story and span of material.

I so want to like Lita Ford. I liked several of her old albums, she always seems compelling in interviews, and I once publicly offered to write lyrics for her so she wouldn't have to sing "I'm a spider monkey, baby" like a moron. She never took me up on it. But Wretched Wonderland is far, far and away the most godawful embarrassment of a record I heard last year. I'd rather listen to porn with the picture off. Graceless, brainless, gutless, ludicrous. The ringtones on my 2-year-old daughter's toy phones are better written. It's too long, yes, but there's no amount of shorter that would make it any better, so what does it matter?

Also, I'm late on this, but I thought last year's Magnum album, Into the Valley of the Moonking, was a marginal improvement on Princess Alice and the Broken Arrow, and thus a reason for some hope that they aren't quite done. In their prime they were probably my favorite Hard Rock band.

on the "Ma Ma Ma Ma Metalshop" radio show back in the 80s.

yeah! another 'm-m-m-m-m-METALSHOP bbbbzzzzzrrrrrpppaaaaqoowwwwWWWW!!!!' fan!

leave it to earlnash. i loved that show. that was some pretty rad shit for mainstream FM radio, even if it was on a Sunday night at 10 PM. I remember hearing the early Accept like "Fast As a Shark" on that show, Exodus, I think I even remember some interview with Jon Bon Jovi where they asked him his favorite formative influences (and this is like in the area of "Runaway") and he said 'Tokyo Tapes' by the Scorpions (live versh of "We'll Burn the Sky" specifically...) And I'm like 'Tokyo Tapes' what the hell is that? I thought they were a new band on the scene, and only knew about "No One Like You."

Yeah, I used to see Armored Saint on MuchMusic's "Power Hour", so that would appear to make 'em metal, even though that program's definition of "metal" was kinda elastic. (They aired Styx' "Heavy Metal Poisoning" once; plus, when Michael Williams (the black guy) filled in for J.D. "John" Roberts as host, he'd make a point of playing "Let's Go Crazy" or "Rock Box" or Xavion.)

So, speaking of Canada, anybody here have any thoughts about TROOPER?? Got Thick As Thieves from 1978, produced by Randy Bachman, for a buck at Breakaway a month or two ago and didn't know what to expect. Pretty sure I used to get them mixed up with Triumph, and Trillion, and Toronto, and Tycoon. (I know who Triumph are now; still hazy on the other three.) Put the album (their fourth I believe) on, and "Live From The Moon" was a rocker -- Popoff calls it pomp but I say it's a good Who rip. But then the next seven songs weren't hard rock at all -- more like soft-rock/yacht-rock, if anything. Nice groove, a lot of the time, but a very easy one, with definite occasional disco leanings. There's a couple blue-eyed soulish things that reminded me of Lavender Hill Mob; "Round Round We Go" had harmony parts right out of "Ventura Highway"; "Drivin' Crazy" tried a Latin rhythm on; "The Moment That It Takes" was a brainlessly generic power ballad that could have been done by Elton John in the late '70s or a hair-metal band in the late '80s or Rascal Flatts in the '00s. (For some reason it gets a slightly different copyright on the inner sleeve, so maybe it was contracted for a movie or something.) And then, finally, second-to-last song on the album, they start rocking again -- "Gambler," maybe midway between early Loverboy and late '70s Bob Seger. And then they do "Raise A Little Hell," a knucklehead party shout that I totally remembered hearing a lot on Detroit radio 30 years ago, and hadn't thought about since. #59 pop hit, Whitburn says, only time a Trooper single charted in the U.S. Worth keeping for that track alone, but still kinda weird.

Popoff seems to say that their debut album, from '75, was heaviest and best, and then they turned consistently mediocre, with occasional sparks of glory. Jasper and Oliver say Trooper "won a reputation for delivering hard-hitting metal of above-average standards" (they're so quotable!), then got more AOR commerical in the '80s. Who's right?

as i think i said on the vinyl board, i wore "raise a little hell" OUT when i was a kid. but i would never actually play the whole album. just that song over and over and over like a lunatic. that was my anthem when i was 11 or 12. that and "hair of the dog". and "hold your head up".

Debut was the most rocking. Had a boogie about roller-skating called forthrightly enough,
"Roller Rink," which is very good. Plus the obscure favorite, "General Hand Grenade." They definitely look like rockers and are high energy on it. Later they made themselves tame and scored the hit you wrote of which also was aired in Pennsy rather a lot. So that generated traction everywhere.

Pulled "Santa Maria" from 1976 (and from Two For The Show) only other Trooper record I've got, down from the 45 shelf, and thought it was disappointing, especially given how glammy two Troopers look on its sleeve (unless those are groupies -- hard to tell.) Basically it's a middling seafaring choogle, like they were trying to do their version of "Ride Captain Ride" by Blues Image, but couldn't really pull it off.

I guess you could rate that with The Stampeders. Trooper lagged April Wine, Chilliwack. Weren't as good as Helix would sound. Not quite up to going toe to toe with Max Webster/Kim Mitchell. More noticeable in the States than Goddo ever was.

Bigger impression than Thundermug. I think Thundermug's Orbit is an incredible early Seventies hard rock record. Everything and the kitchen sink is in it. Nada.

Spun a couple times my new old $1 copy of the '77 self-titled debut by Detective, who George discussed some upstream, and determined my favorite tracks are probably the fairly ferocious Zep Zerox "Grim Reaper," surprisingly tasty midtempo opener "Recognition" (where I always think Michael Des Barres is saying "red condition" instead), and the very funky "Wild Hot Summer Nights," more evidence that plenty of metallish bands around that time had zero qualms about being accused of "going disco" -- sounds like they're aiming for Ohio Players or the Family Stone, only louder than "Fopp" even, and they do it to it. (Worth mentioning maybe that bassist Bobby Pickett is a black guy, and that all five of 'em looked dressed up real fancy like they're ready to hit the disco floor on the back cover.) Rest of the album rocks the piano some ("Detective Man," guitar riff stolen from somewhere obvious I can't place -- keyboardist is Tony Kaye via Yes), fulminates real purty some ("Deep Down"), gets noisy some ("One More Heartache"), and gets cumbersome sometimes when it gets too bloozy. Still, mostly good.

Popoff compares it to Physical Graffiti, Humble Pie, Lone Star (who I haven't heard since I wrote Stairway I just realized), and post-Hunter Mott, but seems to like their followup from a year later more. I'll play that one soon too, I guess. Oliver and Jasper call them "incredibly heavy" and claim they "have the heaviest drum sound bar anyone except John Bonham," which overstates the case a bit.

love this album:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_KcJj6wN1MA4/Ro8DDF56ODI/AAAAAAAAAO4/V_ZDFaIRMTk/s400/copperhead.jpg

Detective did have a 'disco' look. Even moreso on the second. Tonly Kaye, I think, used to joke that being in silver was his baked potato thing.

The Live at Atlantic one reveals some Faces vibe going on, particularly on a song called "Help Me Up" which might have been on the second. "Got Enough Love" also has some Zep stuff, although it probably hearkens more to Silverhead's 16 & Savaged style. For Silverhead, des Barres was glam. For Detective, he's urbane city man-about-town. Both bands only got to two albums, so it was six of one, half a dozen of the other.

Man, just played Good Rats' From Rats To Riches from 1978 again, first time in a year and a half, and I'm sorry George, I fucking LOVE that album - especially "Taking It To Detroit," "Mr. Mechanic," "Don't Hate The Ones Who Bring You Rock & Roll," and "Local Zero." Suddenly I want to start looking for all their other records. We were talking about possible U.S. equivalents of Max Webster upthread, and I swear, judging from this album, these guys probably fit the bill as much as Crack the Sky do. Plus, like Max Webster (and unlike Crack The Sky), they never charted in Billboard! Still want somebody to tell me what the deal is with their namedrop of Twisted Sister in that "...Rock & Roll" song. Also seems interesting that the album came out on Passport -- wasn't that mainly the house label for import distributor Jem? Based in South Plainfield, I know, but still seems exotic for a bunch of butt-ugly Long Island dudes. (Probably there were other Middle Atlantic acts on the imprint, but if so they're slipping my mind right now.) Anyway, here's what I wrote about the album in 2008; still rings true from here:

Rolling Hard Rock 2008 Thread

Good Rats and Twisted Sister ALWAYS played the same clubs near me growing up. They were everywhere. I'm sure they were on the same bills together not only in connecticut and across the border into new york, but also in long island and jersey. NRBQ and Max Creek were the other big bar bands near me, but Good Rats definitely had their tri-state cult.

passport was owned by jem and had a deal with sire. i think? they went bankrupt.

and passport had a deal with charisma in the u.k., i think. and maybe harvest? i know they licensed a lot of u.k. stuff.

that pezband album i bought is on passport. all their albums are. they seem atypical considering the passport roster of brand x, synergy, fm, etc.

though they did end up putting out a lot of new wave in the 80's. all my fave human sexual response records, for instance.

Chuck, if you ever see the Random Hold comp that Passport put out, you should get it. it has stuff from their u.k. album and EP - and it's probably easier to find. very cool post-punk/prog produced by Peter Hammill. i don't know why they haven't had some sort of nerd revival by now. they were cool.

Speaking of could-be nerd revivals, I'm kind of obsessed with this 1981 Credit In Heaven double album I got by Minneapolis Twin/Tone band the Suburbs for 50 cents at a Goodwill here a few weeks ago -- even though the vinyl's sort of warped, so I can't play the first track and a half on any of the four sides! Anyway, I'd call their sound sort of post-punk funk with prog and even Contortiony no wave tendencies -- a stretch for this thread, but I swear, if they'd come from the Lower East Side they'd be legends by now. Also interesting that they beat both their fellow funk-punks the Minutemen and fellow Minnesotans Husker Du to the double-LP deal by three whole years. I'm not gonna claim the individual songs are sinking in, but they have a really cool frantic groove regardless, even despite some kinda haughty Anglofoppish vocal affectations. And I've never heard anybody mention them, not for the past quarter century at least. (Ira Robbins likes them in an old Trouser Press guide book I have, though. And Christgau gave their In Combo LP from 1980 an A-, but this one only a B-.) Actually who they kind of remind me then of is The Embarrassment, from Kansas.

...And actually maybe remind me even more of Philly's Bunnydrums (who George wrote about for me once at the Voice).

"And I've never heard anybody mention them, not for the past quarter century at least."

i have! on ilm at least. and there are other fans here. i need that album that you got. don't have it. love is the law was their big college hit and that's when i first heard them. bought that album at the time.

they were slicker by love is the law though.

I adored "Love Is the Law", too, but yeah, it's much more mainstream than Credit in Heaven. I think of the Suburbs in with the Swimming Pool Qs, Translator and (early) The Call...