A COUPLE OF REALLY FINE TRASHY THINGS FROM WHO PUT THE BOMP!
Only once in a lifetime, or at least once in a cycle of promotional material does anything really eye-gougeingly great come my way, and thanks to the wonderful folk at Bomp! records (fine purveyors of the underground mode of listening pleasure since 1975!) I got two of their better and latest silver dollars for my dining and dancing pleasure. Wow, this package is so GREAT, so much everything that I thought Bomp! has stood for as far as high energy jamz have gone these past few centuries, that I would consider the release of The Black Lips' WE DID NOT KNOW THE FOREST SPIRIT MADE THE FLOWERS GROW and The Coffin Lids' ROCK 'N' ROLL the greatest thing since 1) Nancy, 2) the hamburger and 3) free promos from Norton, Slippytown and Bomp! come to think of it.
When I first saw The Black Lips cover I thought "Great, the Damned have a new recording out under yet another alias!" Well, these Lips do have the Damned look down along with an ear tilted towards some of the blare that was coming out of the 1977 U of K scene, but there's a lot more to the entire gist of it! Like the other ear tilted towards the sounds of American garage trash circa. 1966 filtered through 1985 "revival", and from this stereophonic slam comes a sound that, true, has been tread more than a few times ever since the Ramones got their chocolate stuck in the Standells' peanut butter, but the unholy mix of (what we used to call) "six-oh" past appeal lumped in with late-seventies punkism makes for a sound and style that settles well in my stomach even years after tons of similar-minded product jaded me to the point of lethargy. This is such a timewarp of a wonder that I'm trying to think if this group woulda been more in place blasting forth from the Podunk High gym sometime in '66, or getting gypped out of their pay at the Scum Club twelve-years later! I guess they're best suited for today, even if today isn't suited for them!
('n yeah, I must admit that between the 1966 garage moves and the 1977 sneer there are a couple weak moments like this harpsichord-y thing with a buncha dumb furriners singing along and the "hidden track" which was jazzy snoot, but that's nothing next to the good twist here. And there's also an enhanced video somewhere on this disque, but since even the CD cover admits that it's a "fad" I think I'll skip over it for now, at least until there's nothing better to do!)
When I got hold of the Coffin Lids' ROCK 'N' ROLL CD and looked at the cover, I thought great, another bunch of Misfits imitators amongst the living! Well, how wrong could a perfect soul as I be, because these Coffin Lids guys, despite having the big muscles 'n droopy hair one would associate with Danzigmania, also have a lotta the same love of 1966 filtered through the excrement-lensed seventies attitude of their Black Lips labelmates. Only tougher, and that's tougher enough that of this nice set of promos I'd have to say that the Coffin Lids are hands down the better of the two. Sure, it has the same look, sway and perhaps even feel as the Lips, but the Sonics crunch 'n burn permeates this pancake to the point where you think the CD is going to snap during play! Boss covers of "Pipeline" and the Rockin' Ramrods' "She Lied" are performed in such a hard and destructive nature that you kinda find it hard to believe these songs were written and recorded by the original artists over forty years ago, and even a person like myself who seems as "feh!" over this stuff as one could be years after the taproot of it all's gotta say that (after a lotta things trying to be there and falling way short)....mmmmm, it sure delivers!!!!
For a label that's been at it for over thirty years (starting with the Flamin' Groovies' "You Tore Me Down"/"Him or Me," a single which pretty much set the stage for subsequent releases and company direction), it's sure good seeing that Bomp! hasn't lost any steam all these years later. Kudos to whoever thought it was a good idea to sign these bands, and for Bomp! for having the courage to release 'em in the face of a post-rock world which seems to be dimming even as we speak!!!
(Bomp, PO Box 7112, Burbank, CA 91510 USA, or www.bomp.com)
If you came here looking for rock criticism you might as well be orbiting Jupiter.
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