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CEE-DEE REVIEWS!

Waitin' on a Train-IN THE PATH OF PAIN CD (Bona Fide)

I never was a guy who went in bigtime for this hillybilly bluegrass stuff, not because I'm an uppercrust snob'r anything as chicly elitist as that, but because acoustic countrified sounds just never figured into my oft-bragged about suburban slob upbringing, the same one that raised Standells records, black & white tee-vee reruns and cheeseburgers (threw that one in to get that ol' anti-Chris contingent out there all riled up!) to a special, almost sacred level you just couldn't hope to explain to an intellectual. Naturally, this very same mid-southern sound is part and parcel to other people's trashy rural upbringings which is just as sacred to 'em as SUPERCAR is to mine, so why shouldn't I give these Waitin' on a Train guys a go especially since they have the proud imprimatur of Bona Fide records on their Cee-Dee cover! And really, what more could a guy want here in the days when kicks keep getting harder and harder to find anyway???

Pretty good stuff too NOT from the border states but Eastern Pee-YAY!, with the trio of Tony Staub, Paul Wykowski and Adam Sullivan (rip) doing the bluegrass sound and doing it good. Pleasant enough acoustic folky/driving blasting (not too far off from what a lotta acts who used to play the CB's 313 Gallery used to lay down) which is probably made better because the guys playin' it don't look like a buncha sixty-plus fogies with Col. Sanders bowties and them horn-rimmed glasses with the wire bottoms that were the rage of all the alternative bands back inna eighties!

The Slickee Boys-A POSTCARD FROM THE DAY CD (Dacoit)

I didn't think anybody remembered this seventies/eighties group who straddled the seventies punk and "garage band revival" stratas during those rather confused days when it seemed as if a lotta us fans were kinda forced to hafta take SIDES!!! While most of their brethren and sistren could barely make it out of their particular punk rock ghetto alive, the Slickee Boys managed to easily glide through the seventies punk era into the eighties garage scene without missing a beat, disbanding after over fifteen years and a passel of personnel changes, not to mention a whole slab of independent and self-produced record releases that I'm sure one can seek out with a minimum amount of effort even this late in the fandom game.

This new disque features the early-eighties version of the group (after Mark Noone took over the lead singer/frontman role from Martha Hull) romping it up at a variety of underground hotspots (including such bistros as the Psychedelly in Bethesda Maryland and En Why's own CBGB) back inna day when the the more six-oh aspects of punk began strutting their own stuff and future stars like Greg Prevost and Rudi Protrudi were seemingly coming outta nowhere and beginning to make their marks on the whole glorious underground scene. A wise array of cover material (Sonics, Status Quo, Gizmos {!}) intermingles with a nice slab of long-forgotten Slickee originals, and although the quality is strictly cassettesville it ain't like this sounds like it was recorded up Dave Lang's expansive butt...pretty sleek quality come to think of it and a nice reminder as to what the eighties stood for, at least for guys like me who missed the power and energy of the seventies underground and sure wanted more even though a lotta that stuff was now considered "old" (read an early issue of my rag and you'll know what I mean).

BEFORE I GO I thought I'd post this great Youtube video sent me by none other than Lou Rone featuring "Sugar Daddy," the a-side of his ultra-rare Cross single which I know all you fans of the man (and his boffo CD) not to mention Von Lmo will most certainly want to see/hear. Frankly I gotta admit that I really dig Rone's fine brand of early-seventies heavy metal back when the form was nice and primal, and who knows, if you're the kinda guy who finds a lotta agreement with the early fanzine mentality regarding '72 as a pretty boss year on the AM dial (read Kenne Highland's fanzine musings about just what a banner year for pop radio '72 was!) you should love this one plenty as well. I was hoping that somehow there woulda been a film crew (perhaps on the lookout for the Next Big Ballbuster) taking all sorta moom pitchers of Rone and band in the act of creation, but these pics (all that survives of Cross snap-wise) will have to do. Anyway, as they used to say, listen up and ROCK ON!!!