The 13th Time’s a Charm

Been blasting a handfull of new hardrock/hairpunker records imported from LA lately, including: THE HANGMEN’s In the City EP (good rockin’ but ack! Producer Mike Ness has gone and dangled his 8-ball cliches all over this), MOTHER SUPERIOR’s Three Headed Dog CD (amped-up, vintage LYNYRD SKYNYRD by way of kinda-tiresome, contempo GOV’T. MULE), and RHINO BUCKET’s And Then It Got Ugly CD (it’s a hot tip from G: who said Bon Scott was dead?). All respectable soundtracks for the next jello-shot/Jägermeister Girl divebar blowout you attend with the boys from the worksite. But the best, by far, is

PAT TODD & THE RANK OUTSIDERS The Outskirts of Your Heart (Rankoutsider Records, 2007)

This double CD is where Pat (ex-LAZY COWGIRLS and the Danny Devito of the LA rock underground) finally gets it right. Dead right. It blows the living shit outta the last COWGIRLS release, and that one wasn’t all that bad either. But oh man do he and his band ever ROAR here. Goddamn it’s LOUD – when he’s not crooning over an acoustic gtr, that is. And how great are these songs? All 28 or so of em. The kinda songs that’d send a pretender like Mike Ness stumbling back FLAT ON HIS FAT ASS. Righteous!

As a youngster, I musta had all the early COWGIRLS albums up until How It Looks — How It Is . . . I saw em live a few times too around then . . . but they just didn’t bowl me over like everybody said they would. They were good, but they weren’t no CLAW HAMMER, who were always g-g-g-great. Did I catch em on off-nights? Probably. Was I too uptight to recognize genius when it bit me on the nose? Some evenings, most definitely. Did I spend too much time trying to catch the eye of the cool waitress at Raji’s (‘TEXAS’ TERRI LAIRD, I’m sure of it) rather than gettin’ down with the band? Maybe. I did love a bunch of songs off each of those first few records, though.

But 13 or so records later, Pat’s sounding right like never before. His voice positively soars over the din, and he’s hitting the songs home – outta the everlovin’ park! Oh and does this band ever shred – yes they do. I’d go as far to call this (the hardrock 1/2 of this, at least) DAVE ALVIN singing for an unmasked MISFITS. The rest is, well, DAVE ALVIN fronting an unplugged MISFITS. Ok, so if you’re all brain or easily wrankled by shirt-sleeve C&W sentimentality, steer clear. But everyone else, and I mean EVERYBODY: line the hell up. The bar’s open and the drinks are on the house. Check out the sound files here, you’re gonna want to own this too . . .

Vinyl Withdrawl

So at this point, I can honestly say I’ve spent more than my fair share of precious time trolling through boxes of musty, beat-up used records at various points all across West London. I’ve ducked into charity shops in Acton, Ealing, Chiswick, Richmond, Twickenham, Shepherd’s Bush, Hammersmith, Ladbroke Grove, Hounslow, even Feltham for god’s sake – all in search of . . . I dunno . . . the second DEVIANTS LP on Stable Records from 1968? Some minor MARK PERRY/ALTERNATIVE TV side-project, ca. 1980, in a homemade sleeve with a ”pay no more than £0.99” stamp on it? Or even one of those new wave-era HAWKWIND records, after Lemmy bailed but before they lost it completely and became DAVE BROCK + pickup band. But what do I find? Endless records by

T’PAU
SIMPLY RED
LEVEL 42
BUCKS FIZZ

and

PAUL (fucking) YOUNG

It’s sick, man – I mean, only PAUL YOUNG – ok, SIMPLY RED too – ever meant fuck-all in America, and only for like the length of a couple shitty 7” 45’s. Who the hell ARE these Eurovison-reject idiots, choking up the space between the ABBA’s Super Trouper LP and the umpteenth record by JAMES LAST? Next year’s Celebrity Big Brother contestants out to resuscitate their stillborn careers, no doubt.

Ok ok – so I did once find the HAPSHASH & THE COLOURED COAT Western Flyer LP on Liberty from ’68 in a Cancer Research chazza on the Hounslow High St. for a pound. No it ain’t easy to find but it kinda sucks too, so it was a push. Otherwise it’s been slim pickens, indeed. Call me bitter but I expected SOMETHING BETTER from second-hand London.