No More Heroes

I wish this band calling themselves The Strokes would quit ruining the legacy of that other band The Strokes that i used to like.

it’s been a decade since the Strokes released their 2nd (and best) album Room On Fire. at that point in time the Strokes backlash was so fierce that almost no one wanted to admit that Room On Fire was a great record. mostly everyone just tore it apart for sounding exactly like the Is This It and for rehashing the same late 70s New York City sound…like that is supposed to a bad thing. in the 10 years since Room On Fire, The Strokes have been doing everything they could to expand their sound which has resulted in some truly boring music. if you were holding out any hope that The Strokes still had the ability to write perfect little slices of sunshine-y New Wave inspired guitar pop….well you are shit out of luck. with Comedown Machine we don’t get a return to form, it’s just more of the same all over the place clash of styles and lack of energy. so this now makes 2 great albums and 3 shitty ones. when your bad outweighs your good then it’s time to call it quits. 

Sleazy Junk and Cold War Punk

Sleazy Junk and Cold War Punk

1. The Cramps- Can't Hardly Stand It
2. The Pagans- What's This Shit Called Love?
3. Crime- Hot Wire My Heart
4. The Weirdos- A Life Of Crime
5. X (Australia)- I Don't Wanna Go Out
6. The Scientists- Pissed On Another Planet
7. The Boys Next Door- Masturbation Generation
8. The Child Molesters- I'm The Hillside Strangler
9. Psycho Surgeons- Wild Weekend
10. The Users- Sick Of You
11. The Dickies- Paranoid
12. The Controllers- Do The Uganda
13. The Germs- Communist Eyes
14. The Dils- I Hate The Rich
15. The Wipers- Better Off Dead
16. The Dicks- Dicks Hate The Police
17. Big Boys- Fun Fun Fun
18. Flipper- Love Canal
19. Bobby Soxx- Learn To Hate The 80s
20. The Chain Gang- Son of Sam
21. X X- You're Full Of Shit
22. The Rocks- You're So Boring
23. Nervous Eaters- Just Head
24. Teenage Head- Top Down
25. The Zeros- Beat Your Heart Out
26. Redd Kross- Annette's Got The Hits
27. Protex- Don't Ring Me Up
28. The Adverts- Bored Teenagers
29. The Flys- Love and a Molotov Cocktail
30. The Vibrators- We Vibrate
31. Vomit Pigs- Slut
32. The Urinals- Sex
33. Half Japanese- Dream Date
34. Electric Eels- Agitated
35. Lester Bangs & The Delinquents- Life Is Not Worth Living and Suicide Is A Waste Of Time

get it here.

Free Turf War Covers EP

my buddies, Atlanta garage rockers, Turf War recorded some covers songs and now they are giving them away for free to download.

TURF WAR Plays The Hits

1. Wooly Bully (Sam The Sham & The Pharaohs cover)
2. Ain't Living Long Like This (Waylon Jennings cover)
3. Bad Moon Rising (Creedence Clearwater Revival cover)
4. See/Saw (Jay Reatard cover)

download it here.

Buncha random pictures of my old band The Agenda.

The Men say goodbye to noise.

The Men have followed up last year's breakout Open Your Heart (one of my personal favorite records of 2012) with New Moon.

The Men are now a 100 million miles from their early droney noise records Immaculada and Leave Home ....BUT even compared to a record they just released less than a year ago, they sound like almost an entirely different band. on Open Your Heart they were still worshipping at the alter of 90s shoegaze and noise rock creating something to make all of our J. Mascis loving hearts proud. with New Moon it seems like the dudes in The Men have tossed out their Loop and Dinosaur Jr records and gotten really really really into early Wilco and Uncle Tupelo. Hey man, it happens. one day you just get burnt out on Shellac.

Not to say all is lost, some of the heavy spaced out Krautrock jams and layers of feedback still exist (especially on the psych-rock closer "Supermoon") but largely they have been phased out in favor of a more roots rockin' Americana sound. there's some obvious Neil Young & Crazy horse aping going on too, but if you are gonna steal then you might as well steal from the best. i'd almost call this album a let down if i was a whiny asshole who didn't allow bands to do different things but the songs are still so damn good that I ain't got too much worth complaining about.

if Open Your Heart was an A- 21st century rock n roll album, then New Moon is a solid B+. just don't be surprised when your Neil Young loving dad starts listening to these guys or they end up being the frat boy that goes to Bonnaroo every year's favorite new band. all in all it's another solid album from one of better current bands going.