Sunday, April 15, 2007

Bootleg Booze is a Swedish label that specializes in the rock that only Scandanavia seems capable of rolling out…



The Deadbeats will appeal to those who dig The Hellacopters but with a twist of Thin Lizzy thrown into the mix. “Long Hard Nights” will push all the right buttons because it’s made with a lot of panache. Bringing the finest ingredients of Australian and Detroit to Sweden where it seems to be the perfect environment for it to breed like topsy. A question of temperature indeed. The “Come Clean” EP has 4 tracks, one of them is Cheap Trick’s “He’s A Whore” and you can always tell how cool a band is by the calibre of their cover versions and that famous guitar lick is Dictatorised and as you can imagine that scores pretty much a bullseye around these parts.

Ever consider what Nine Pound Hammer going on “Stars In Your Eyes” as a cross between Mud and The Ramones might sound like? Well, The Accidents are waiting to happen in exactly that holding pattern. To consider that their shows might be a tad boisterous is perhaps an understatement. To be this loud and fast yet retaining that melodic pop edge is some kinda high wire act but they make it across and back time after time with no safety net in sight. "Kings of the Night" is like The Aliens reinventing "This Ain't The Summer of Love". Or even The Clash on the odd occasion when they ripped it up.

The Hangmen Vs The Supersuckers 45 offers “Never Go Home” and “Trouble Man” in an old, loud and snotty demeanour. Rough as a bears arse and flying a rocktastic flag for the sound we veterans will never tire of punching the air to.

The Incubators are from Oslo but suffer the same condition as their label mates. They’ve been sentenced to make the sign of the devil like they just don’t care. These guys remind me of the great b-sides that The Sweet used to bolster their more bubblegum tunes with. Semblance of vintage Alice Cooper in there too. Onetime Gluecifer and Tip Topper alumnus, there’s definitely a bit more glam about this but it swings no less for it. Like Dave Champion sez in the liner notes “Parasite in Paradise sounds like Roky Erickson if he ever got to Scanadanavia”. That scenario is about to happen. Incidentally the Rok is at the Bowery Ballroom in New York tonight. It’s set to be a cold, wet night there. Hold the alligators willya? Final song on the EP is “Vision Express”, crying out to be the theme song of the chain of opticians stores here in the UK. It’s even more reminiscent of our favourite martian and could well be the greatest slice of Norwegian rock since The Tracemen’s “She’s Got A Hard-On”.

Urkke T and the Midlife Crisis are a Scando supergroup with a backyard baby, a maggot, a hellacopter and a maryslim belting out punk rock classics the way only such a crew could. High octane thrills and fun, fun, fun until your daddy wrestles that firearm outta your mitt. They seldom make them like this anymore. Covers of The Users, The Warheads and The Avengers rejuvenated and pogoing harder than the originals ever did.

Mary’s Kids “Destroy” is perhaps the best of the bunch. Like Suzi Quatro fronting Radio Birdman with a chorus worthy of Slade. A rendezvous of sonics and then some. Very sharp revved-up run through of Ike Turner’s “I’m Fed Up” on the flip will make sure you end up anything but. That mood should remain intact just so long as you keep flipping the record over. I can’t legislate for the bummer that might ensue when you stop.

You can check out the sounds and all the info at the BB site, just click on the link back there and get lost in the waves of unbridled rock action.
This is not a gig poster, it's a serious plea for information... click on the image to enlarge.
The gods or who/whatever continue to conspire agin me and this portal is acting up again into the bargain. This may result in no more posts for the next day or three but we'll see... there also seems to be an ongoing e-mail problem, so if you've sent a message and got no reply over the past week then use the contact link here because that "seems" to work.

Anyway, have a look at this Germs story if you're bored. (link courtesy of Bruce Bennett)

More US Punk Rock, The Choke (pictured) are headed your way opening for Theatre of Hate over the next week or so. Tuts in Glasgow on Tuesday (24th).

Danny and Dusty at Glasgow ABC2 on Wednesday.

Good luck to all the folks in the tri-state area and above and below these parts, who are expecting a big storm today. Hopefully it'll just be "wind and pish" on the behalf of the forecasters and you come out unscathed.