ACT YOUR RAGE - The Doughboys (RAM Records)
It's a simple story, really: Unsung Central Jersey (that's US of A) veteran beat band reforms for a birthday party - 40-plus years after the event and with mostly original members - and plays music it loves. Sticks together and gigs for five years. Records two albums in quick succession that kick the shit out of 'most anything else of this ilk."Act Your Rage" should come as no surprise after the blast that was 2007's "Is It Now". Plenty of old dogs know lots of tricks, after all. This is a better, more well-rounded album than its predecessor with enough kinetic energy to light up half the Jersey shore. Still firmly planted in the mid-'60s but sprouting new blossoms two generations later, it's a template to show the kids how.
Having a great singer helps. Myke Scavone is a more vocally supple Keith Relf (especially on opener "Break Out") and gets all "Goat's Head Soup" Jaggeresque on the swaying "Wishful Thinking" and the super-soulful "Carmalina", an update on Otis' "I've Been Loving You Too Long". The Doughboys take their lead from the Stones first and foremost.
Songs are the essence of The Doughboys and drummer Richie X Heyman and guitarist Gar Francis step up to the plate, writing another bunch great tunes. Heyman's "Why Can't You See Me" gets all Kinksy under the weight of gritty guitars while "Twelve Bars And I Still Have The Blues" is a genuine Beck-era Yardbirds arse-shaker with wailing blues harp and string-bending licks.
Francis' "Nobody's Girl" is the killer app, a slow-tempo bundle o' hooks with a fuzz bait. Not far behind is his deliberately-paced "Turn Your Love On Me" where Mike Caruso walks his bass around while harp and guitar cook up a nice brew.
Francis and Scavone collaborate for a co-write on "Queen City" where boogie piano and brass embellishments summon a storm. "Desperate Delusion" falls a bit flat to my ears but "I'm Not Your Man" takes The Doughboys back to '65 Stones territory where they're much more comfortable. "Suck It Up" echoes Jimi 's "Crosstown Traffic" with its reverb vocal and saturated lead-break while "Tuesday Afternoon" comes on like the Who on psychedelics.
The Doughboys continue to stage the greatest comeback since the Pretty Things. Score a copy here. - The Barman
3/4
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IS IT NOW? - The Doughboys (RAM Records)
Holy reunion, Batman, is it 1968 again? That was the year when New Joisey-raised The Doughboys were house band at Cafe Wha? on Macdougal Street in Greenwhich Village, a place that was more or less Career Ground Zero to Hendrix, the Velvets and Robert Allen Zimmerman. Forty years later and they go and put out their debut album full of mid-'60s Stonesy goodness . Pass that hearing aid...So who the hell are The Doughboys? Possibly the quintessential outgrowth of the typical American high school band. A merger of two rival acts and winners of a teen TV battle of the bands, they scored some regional hits and tour with people like Tommy James and the Beach Boys. But by the time the '70s dawned, The Doughboys were the No Boys and had gone their separate ways.
Members went on to greater things with singer Myke Scavone frontman for Ram Jam (of "Black Betty" fame) and drummer Richie Heyman getting the best view in the house as sideman for Brian Wilson and Link Wray.
The story gets better. Fast forward to 2000 and The Doughboys only re-convened at the suggestion of drummer Heyman's wife Nancy. Obviously a child bride who missed them the first time around, she wanted to see her old man's band for herself, so did what any independent-minded significant other would have and organised a show. Must have been a good 'un because eight years later, three-quarters of the the band's still going, original guitarist Willy Kirchofer having left the building a few years ago.
It took the band seven years to get this out but it sounds like it was worth the wait. This is uncomplicated, rock and roll, laid down in the spirit of the many Brit Invasion and blues-influenced combos that populated clubs and parties all over the USA. The Doughboys evoke the Kinks, the Yardbirds (very much so) and the Stones in the way that only bands that lived and breathed their essence could.
Original fan and new guitarist Gar Francis has brought a stack of his own songs to the party and there are venerable or obscure covers ("Route 66", "That's How My Love Is", "I'm Cryin' ", "Down Home Girl" and "Ain't Gonna Eat My Heart Anymore") that sit hand-in-glove with the fuzzy-edged tub-thumper "Out Of The Night" and the ace "Everything That's Close to Me". (That last one's outro'd with a coda from a 1966 single by pre-Doughboys band The Ascots.
Production is clean but punchy with legendary Ed Stasium the man behind the mastering.
I'm hearing a band that could be the less bawdy uncles to The Raunch Hands. The elders might behave a little better but there's nothing on this disc suggesting any of them are about to apply for the old age pension. Or be the GOP's candidate for the Presidency, thankfully.
A surprise packet with character you can't buy, this will delight fans of the bands that these Doughboys obviously took to heart. Grab a copy via here.
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