THE
RICHMOND SLUTS - The Richmond Sluts (Disaster)This is the THIRD fuckin' promo of this alb I've received...Jayzus, you'd think Suzy wanted me to REVIEW it or something!
This
record reminds me of an ad I usedta see in the back of the old Creem magazine
ca. '71-'72. It featured a pic of a Lenny Kaye-looking kid in one of those long-billed
caps of the type that Keef was affecting around that time, with the legend,
"Jay Gatsby is the most wasted boy alive." Who the fuck was Jay Gatsby?
No clue. Did he have a band? Was he an F. Scott Fitzgerald obsessive? No idea.
But he (or somebody) ponied up the bucks to pay for this Creem ad MORE THAN
ONCE, so it musta meant SOMETHING to SOMEBODY.First, the name: sounds kinda like a New York Dolls rip or homage, but Richmond? As in what, Virginia? The former capital of the Confederacy? (How many miles are we from Pedro's South of the Border?) Naah, 'cos I'm almost certain that these boys are from L.A. Or maybe it's in honour of the rural Surrey, UK burg that birthed both the Stones and the Yardbirds way back in sixties prehistory? A stronger possibility, since these boys clearly have their Anglophile affectations in place. Dunno.
Cover's got a pic of some red-lipsticked hottie wearing sunglasses, kinda "Almost Famous"-like, with the boys in the band's scowling visages reflected in the lenses. Cool effect. They look like Rockstars. The one on the left has that classic sixties Viking-haired Brian Jones/Keith Relf/Joe Kelley from the Shadows of Knight thang going on, and these Sluts certainly have a soupcon of that "Nuggets"-era garage punk thang in their sound, too, even though they're on Patrick Boissel's (relatively) new Disaster imprint, which I thought was supposed to be all '77-style punk like Duane Peters' Hunns. They even have a KEYBOARD PLAYER, for chrissakes, like the Forty Fives, although I bet the Sluts' guy doesn't work a tenth as hard onstage as the Forty Fives' guy does. The rest of the Sluts look disturbingly, uh, New Wave - actually, two of 'em actually look like the belong in the Cars, for some reason. Skinny ties: when oh when is the Knack revival coming, hunh?
Yeah, there's definitely some sixties Shadows of Knight/Seeds type action going on here (see "Service for the Sick"), but then the opening track has overdubbed girlie torture/sex noises like they were Guns 'n' Roses or something.. These boys have definitely worshipped at the Church of St. Johnny Genzale (see "Junky Queen"), although not long or devoutly enough to record for Vicious Kitten. All in all, it ain't a bad rekkid, it just doesn't fry my burger (new phrase that pays courtesy of my new Aussie pal Phil Stone, a she) the way lotsa other stuff like the Dictators' newie does, or even the new ones by Tricky Woo or, uh, Stinking Lizaveta. The Sluts are a fun band, but not one that'll make you think too hard; a worthy listen as long as you're not looking to be MOVED. Every city should have a band like this. In fact, if yours doesn't, maybe you could adopt 'em, and they could play a gig there and change their name to the [Your City's Name Here] Sluts. Now THERE'S an idea with some potential! - Ken Shimamoto
