Mr. Biggers and I run into Keith (AKA -- Mr. Back In Black) prior to this Halloween show. Even though he's not interested in any of the bands, Mr. BIB decides to go and take advantage of the $1.00 domestic beers. As I order my second Budweiser, the waitress informs us that the dollar special is only on weekends, and our beers are mistakenly sold to us at that price. This does not sit well with Mr. BIB, and he goes on a false-advertising rant. BIB is refunded his money and leaves. Later, Keith.
Jab come out with a sound similar to any band on Fat Wreck Chords. Biggers knows a couple of their members.
.007 are next and fall into the category of "bands with a James Bond-inspired name that are ska-influenced." Their highlight is an energetic version of "No Woman No Cry."
Lostribe take the floor and play a solid set of fast punk rock. This is my second time seeing this band, and "Skateboarding, Chicks, Forties and Blunts" sounds damn good live.
After an overblown costume contest that "Supergirl" (cute as hell) does not win, Sloppy Seconds run through an altogether too short list of songs (mostly from their 1989 album Destroyed), but at least they play "I Don't Wanna Be A Homosexual." New tracks include "I Love Lesbians (So Why Don't They Love Me?)," and "I Love Her Body (But Her Record Collection Sucks)." Both fit well with their "junk-rock" motif.
A different sort of tribe (Stone House Tribe) invades Peabody's the next evening, but I'm not a witness to their ritual. Cover bands suck!
The main constant in this band is singer/guitarist Andi Beltramo, who switches to bass for the follow-up to It Smells, It Burns, It... More rock 'n' roll than you'd expect on cuts like "Sex Change" (which takes one back to CBGB's 1976, with name checks of Cheetah Chrome and Wayne/Jayne County) and "Nice Girls (Don't Play Rock 'N' Roll)" -- a new twist on the Rose Tattoo classic. For you trilinguals, there's two numbers sung in Spanish and one in German.
Clap yer feet, stomp yer hands! Wot you 'ave heer is sum dark-edged punk rok 'n' rol skweezed with sum wham-bam-thank-you-mam glam vox that'll make yer mama all crazee now. If Endangered Species, Live Forever Or Die Trying and Slade Alive weer all somehow dun on a single album, my friend Stan wood take me bak 'ome and we wood feel the noize from this gudbuy. Cum on and get down and get with it, coz Jane might luv and pleeze ya if yer a bangin' man.
Whenever my best pal was able to get time off from his shitty proofreading job in Norcross, GA, he would come back to Virginia for a visit. Along the way, Greensboro often served as a stopping point for fuel and nourishment. It was during one of these cheap-grade unleaded sessions that John noticed the drunken winos sleeping on the railroad tracks. A quick observation of the surrounding structures revealed burned-out, abandoned edifices. He left Greensboro that morning with the overall impression of the place as an industrial wasteland. One day, I asked John what city was going to be the next Seattle. His answer: Greensboro. Say hello to the new Nirvana. Okay, not quite, but if this "wasteland" suddenly became all the hype, Ubangi Stomp would be the cornerstone act. These four incisions owe more to Joey Ramone and Johnny Thunders than the Guana Batz siphoning gas for their stolen hearse. When you give the track barkeep a $20 bill, you don't get any change.
From the label that gave us the newest releases from The Morning Shakes and Jack Black comes this NYC outfit, specializing in glam-pop punk rock 'n' roll much in the same way D-Generation does. Pick hits from these "titans of terror on a lustful binge" include "Wreck My Bedroom," "Helen Keller," "So Young And Wasted" and a take on the old Alice Cooper tune "Be My Lover."
If this sounds like Larry from The Candy Snatchers fronting The Slobs, that's because it is. This four-song cultural exchange between VA and OH was recorded "in about five hours during two different holiday weekends 1995." Two originals on side A ("Hope For Tomorrow" and "Down At The Jockey Club") and a flip through The Zeros' catalog ("Wimp"), in addition to the Killed By Death songbook (The Lewd's "Kill Yourself"), make for some really wasted fun.
Latest release from this long-running, one-man show. Here's what I refer to as a "collage album." Forty songs (each one lasting a minute or so) home-taped. Written lyrics with no evidence of any chorus. Sounds like the Minutemen, right? Though LMNOP operates under similar guidelines, musically, he does not resemble the likes of D. Boon and company. Some may be tempted to call this "power pop," but because my Pell Grant at the Eric Worden School of Music Journalism has long expired, I'll use that term when it's better suited to fit. There's no way in hell that "Unnatural Interest In Excretory Functions," "Retarded Fucker" and "KKK Crown" ("Fuck your shitty little world") will ever pop up on the milk-and-cookies fest that is "Adult Alternative" radio. If your life is spent wondering how "I Started A Joke"-era Bee Gees would've turned out had they been forced to eat their own feces, weigh in on Pound.
Mr. Biggers and I run into Keith (AKA -- Mr. Back In Black) prior to this Halloween show. Even though he's not interested in any of the bands, Mr. BIB decides to go and take advantage of the $1.00 domestic beers. As I order my second Budweiser, the waitress informs us that the dollar special is only on weekends, and our beers are mistakenly sold to us at that price. This does not sit well with Mr. BIB, and he goes on a false-advertising rant. BIB is refunded his money and leaves. Later, Keith.
