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BAND: KENNE HIGHLAND and his VATICAN SEX KITTENS
TITLE: Be More Flamboyant!
CONTACT: Stanton Park - 2003
www.stantonpark.com
Right now ladies and gentlemen...Brockport, New York names him...
Bloomington, Indiana fames him...and tonight Boston claims him!...everybody
put your hands together and welcome to our stage - the eighth natural
wonder of the world - Krazee Kenne Highland!
With "Be More Flamboyant!" Kenne (Gizmos,Afrika Korps, the Klan,
Hopelessly Obscure etc.) Highland delivers the hardest hitting album of his
career.
Ten smokin' boombox blasters - eight originals with lyrics by Kenne,
plus two great covers. Smokey Robinson's immortal "My Girl" (sung Lou
Reed '73 style) and The Young Rascal's soulshaker "Come On Up."
This recording is almost as exciting as seeing the Vatican Sex Kittens
dishing it out live on stage (often accompanied by their posse of femme
go-go dancers) while Kenne, standing on a chair in the middle of the
dance floor, belts out the good vibes.
Stellar Aram Heller ( lead guitar), Vox-powered Scott Ferguson
(guitar), phat Matt Burns (drums) and kingpin Carl Biancucci (bass and cowbell)
are a no-bullshit, rootsy rock'n'roll band. Their Stooges/Dolls/Stones
inspired raving translates loud and clear into these grooves.
Kudos to noted mixmaster Erik Lindgren who engineered and mastered this
release. The sizzlin' session was tracked at his Sounds Interesting
Studio in Middleborough MA.
The Sex Kittens close out the album with their controversial "Punjab
Dhaba" an extended freakout that finds Aram, Scott and guest Chris George
sitting cross-legged on an oriental carpet wailing away on sitars and
tabla. Carl and Matt are over in the corner pumping out a good sexbeat
while the incense burns and Krazee Kenne goes off about a whole bunch of
really weird shit for about 10 minutes. Like I said, this album is a
winner from start to finish!
My Picks to Click: She's a Darlin', Not Too Shabby, Vatican Sex Kitten,
Be More Flamboyant
Cowboy Score: 850
BAND: SONNY VINCENT
TITLE: Soul Mates
ON: Disturbed Records
- 2004 www.cargo.records.de
Legendary NYC street rocker Sonny Vincent
straps on his 1969 Les Paul and blows down the door with a new batch of angry
anthems. Since his days fronting the Testors
in the 70's Vincent has been serving time,
first in reform school, then behind bars (2 years for one joint) but he prefers
to serve time behind a microphone with his growling Gibson guitar.
Sonny delivers true Detroit-style hardrock
straight outta the MC5/ Stooges
mold. In the past Vincent
has teamed with Wayne Kramer (MC5).
Scott Asheton of the Stooges
is another frequent bandmate. Asheton
plays drums on one cut here ("Concrete Poetic") and ya just can't
get much more authentic then that.
Vincent opens
up the set with "Totally Fucked". Sonny's
bad-ass vocals are coughed up in that shouted/strangled style falling somewhere
in the aural vicinity of Rob Tyner (MC5)
and Lemmy (Motorhead).
Cool! His backing band, usually Jack DeAngelo
on bass, Bishop on drums and Johnny
Rio on second guitar, play heavy and fast, not unlike the
Dead Boys or the first version of DMZ -
back when JJ was always bashing that old
Les Paul.
"All Burnt Down" the lone off-tempo number suprises with a catchy
John Felice-esque melody complete with
sensitive lyrics giving proof that Vincent can croon if forced to. The nice
harmonies on that one are provided by Jamie Ferland
and Kristy Hovorak from the band Eivy.
Then it's right back to the nasty attitude & amped-up action with great cuts
like "Come For You", "Time Bomb" and "No Detour".
Sonny Vincent is known to quote from Noam
Chomsky, whom this album is dedicated to, and he can also rattle
off colorful lyrics like "Tired of all your fucking shit, (Unintelligible)
because of it! You make me puke a lot you know, So kiss my ass and fucking blow!"
Those gems are from "You Very Much".
We get 12 songs plus 5 more bonus cuts on "Soul Mates".
Ramones fans might be interested to hear
track 13, "Answering Machine, Joey, Dee Dee", some late night
messages Joey and Dee
Dee left on Sonny's phone machine.
As for the final bonus cut "Oriental Actors" ... WTF?
Artist Vince Ray's cover illustration
is a pen and ink of Sonny's bedroom incorporating
Hendrix, Link
Wray, Elvis, the
Ramones, the Stooges, Jack Daniels,
a Fender amp, a Gibson guitar, Jack Kerouac,
cigarettes and a just-laid red head with big tits. Nice!
"Soul Mates" was produced by Sonny
Vincent and it's a fitting album title because it includes lots of
mates. 5 drummers, 5 bass players, 5 guitarists and 5 different engineers are
listed in the credits. Maybe it was recorded in different studios as well -
none are listed.
The overall sound is tight, fullbodied, coherent and flowing. It's the songwriting/singing
and nasty guitar playing of Sonny that really
glues it all together. New York City-born Sonny Vincent
has been touring the world, most notably with his band Shotgun
Rationale, for the past 30+ years. I plucked the following anecdote
out of one of his online bios: "During a recent tour Sonny got arrested
for smashing a decibel meter. Sonny took it from the authorities and smashed
it. After being arrested he said: "Of course I smashed it, that's an anti-rock'n'roll
device... I'm supposed to smash those, right?"
Picks to click: Concrete Poetic, L.S.D. Boy, Come For You, All Burnt Down, Chopping Block Cowboy score: 900
BAND: THE DOWNBEAT 5
TITLE: The Downbeat 5
ON: Sympathy for the Record Industry 2003
www.sympathyrecords.com
Snarling riffs, shaking maracas and a pissed-off chick. Sounds like a typical
Friday night at my pad... hey wait a minute... it's The
Downbeat 5!
Garage-king JJ Rassler (DMZ,
the Odds, the
Queers) continues to wrangle those rabble-rousing riffs out of his
vintage six-stringers. Bassman Mike Yocco
rides shotgun and pounds the Roto-sounds into submission on this 14 song collection.
Jennifer D Angora (the artist formerly known as Jen
Rassler) charges the microphone and unloads a heap of dirty laundry.
"You're too hard to handle! The good's gone! I gotta have it my way. I'm
not waiting! Don't come cryin' to me!" Angry doll D
Angora has a real toughgirl voice & she does double-duty here, banging
away on her buzzsaw rhythm guitar. Where did she get that mad looking axe anyway?
I think it has a stickshift on it.
Excellent songwriting takes full advantage of JJ's 60's and 70's proto-punk
background and Jen's combative lyrics and
catfight vocalizing. This is a killer recording too, made in Austin TX at the
Sweatbox, produced by Mike Mariconda (who
also plays some keys on here), and engineered by Bryan
Nelson.
A triple-shot o' pure-pedigreed-underground-BGN-approved- ghost-of-Cantones-Boston-style
rock'n'roll that you just can't ignore. The D5
are promising us another album later this year. Yeeahhiiaaee!!!
Picks to Click: Radiates That Charm, Too
Hot To Handle (love that Buck Owens guitar), Don't Come Cryin' To Me, My Way
Cowboy Score: 815
