Even though it's nothing like sleepy London Town there's still not more a lot more to do in financially-strapped Greece these days than sing in a rock and roll band. Even the olive trees are out of work. Bazooka hails from that place (Greece, not London) and plays a rumbling, surly brand of lo-fi rock and roll that sits perfectly in the formidable Slovenly Music stable.
It's like you'd never know there's some sort of golden age of music going on in Australia right now.
Compiler Geoff Ginsberg of Real O Mind Records nails it in the opening words of the liner notes when he observes that rock and roll is music for old people, made by old people. Not only is no-one appearing on this collection of 20 songs aged under 40, some have offspring who have been on the planet for longer than three decades. The clattering of canes and rattling of Zimmer frames never sounded so good.
It would be a pity if this release only hit the spot with Died Pretty fans and underground rock geek/collector scum historians because it’s deserving of better than that. The End was the first substantive band for Died Pretty guitarist Brett Myers and a handful of these songs (“Just Skin”, “This Reason”, “Through My Heart” and “Lost”) were later recorded by the latter group.
Flamin' Groovy? The verdict is that it is indeed - and why wouldn’t it be? The singer for the most enduring (and some might say best) Flamin’ Groovies pop line-up re-surfaces with a solo album and ropes in Cyril Jordan, George Alexander, Mike Wilhelm - and even original line-up vocalist Roy Loney - from that same storied band.
Everybody else has their own garage punk blues duo so why not the Irish? The Bonnevilles (not to be confused with the Australian band of similar moniker) keep it stripped-back, fuzzy and simple to wipe the floor with most of the competition. Punk blues doesn’t get much better than this.