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English Reviews Part 1 V. A. Bombardiranje new Yorka (Bombing Of New York) cass & CD ...one of the flat-out best punk comps to roll down the pike since Tub Rats. Croatia's best ranters Skol, Majke (The Mothers), Messerschmitt, Kaotične due (Chaotic Souls) join forces w/ the country's psychedelic version of GG Allin (Satan Panonski), plus it's top-flight early 70s style blues-punks (Machine Gun) for much frantic aural fulfillment. Solidly listenable, way fuzzy garbage delivered the way it should be in buckets. Byron Coley Forced Exposure #15, Boston, MA, USA This album features six bands. Majke, who serve up some mighty fine 77-style punk rock. Next on to Machine Gun, an amped-up sloopy Ten Years After/ZZ Top hybrid. More great punk a la Publik Enema from Kaoticne Duse. On the "ova strana", Satan Panonski (Satan Panonnian) provides a bizzare Pere Ubu-esque change of pace. Back to roots punk with Skol (the singer sounds like he's in a tunnel) and Messerschmitt, the English-As-A-Second-Language group, wraps this baby up with some alternately driving and plodding guitar monster music. Debi Dip Real Life In The Big City zine, L.A., CA, USA Majke Majke cass & CD ...the new wave explosion seemed to toss a lot more dust across Eastern Europe than the punk one ever did, so it's nice to hear a quartet of young Croatians playing a solid set of '78-style sped-up Stoogoid meta-punk. They sing in their native tongue, but play their instruments like Canucks transported down a decade long time tunnel. Big, loud, anthemoid thunk w/some nice psych jack-off guitar sprayed across the top, it adds up to a nice generic statement. Byron Coley Forced Exposure #15, Boston, MA, USA These guys rock. 14 hot grungy rocking tunes in their native tongue, luckilly translated on the lyric sheet. Influences include STOOGES, DOLLS, MC5, etc., and I'd say a touch of early DAMNED, HEARTBREAKERS, etc. Did I say this was fucking great? Yeah! RG Maximumrocknroll, CA, USA Majke are Croatian rock & roll band with a tough rhythmic style. Basically they are a straightahead rock & roll outfit with bass/drums/guitar and a sound that probably owes as much to early-mid '70s Stonesey rock as it does to late '70s punk. Shakin Street zine, Australia Messerschmitt Lussy, cass & CD Rockin' STOOGE-ian punk with lots of snarly drive and grungy power. Loads of fun and "Today, Today" really rocks! WG Maximumrocknroll, CA, USA Fantastic, fast rock'n'roll with a roots feel totally underproduced. The kind of toe-tapping stuff that psyches me up for my day at work or my evening out. I can't be sure but it sounds like these Croats are singing in English. I digs it! Debi Dip Real Life In The Big City, L.A., CA, USA An instrumental track called "No Name" begins this release of what I can only describe as Croatian speed punk/thrash. Like their North American counterparts it's not all that clear exactly which language they're singing in, but some tracks are a little more basic punk & rock'n'roll inspired & do manage to get my toes tapping to the beat. "Today, Today" is one of the more straight-forward rocker chock full of some mean guitar licks & lead guitar hooks. Likewise "Moonlight, Starlight" is another noteworthy track in the same vein with some basic rock sounds, "In The Hit Of The Night" starts off like the old Golden Earing classic "Radar Love" & is likely one of their best songs on here. "Blues" is a slow blues number that seems out of place on here, but it is one of the better tracks along with their cover of the blues classic "I'm A Man" feauturing some wild harmonica & scathing lead guitar. Their cover of Little Richard's "Keep A Knockin'" is pretty lame speed-trash, while their original tune "Train" is pretty wild. I should mention that the lead guitar work is outstanding throughout the album. Eddie Doran Rock On zine, USA Driving punk blues-rock. They set up a mighty roadhouse drone that won't give up. Lots of guitar solos, English lyrics, boozy vocals. These Messerschmits are wicked! And this is only a studio recording The Humpers My Machine, cass & LP They're from Fullerton. Scott Drake of Suicide Kings fame has a new outfit that he is fronting. The Humpers recorded this slab live in the studio and did a great job of it in one day! Echoes of the Dolls, Dead Boys and even Wayne County occasionally. Sparse, tasty guitar licks, no nonsense vocals and songs of blasphemy and an obsession with nasty old passe drugs. Debi Dip Real Life In A Big City, L.A., CA, USA "Planet Dirt" could almost be a New York Dolls outtake, especially the "Ooh-wee ooh" backing vocals. "Whips And Chains" has some heavy Iggy Pop (I Wanna Be Your Dog) influences & a lovely guitar solo. "Kill Sister Kill" is a great full throttle ass kicking rocker with shades of The Runaways song "Cherry Bomb". Overall the sound is very much New York Dolls & early 70's punk influenced and this album is certainly worth your time if you love rock'n'roll. I'm particulary fond of the lead guitar work. "My Machine", "St. Jon", "Sunday Sunday Seriously" & "Loser Club" are noteworthy tracks. Eddie Doran Rock On zine, USA If you like sex, you'll like The Humpers. But wait...that can't be: Joan Collins absolutely hates them. But Johnny Thunders would come see them if he weren't a stiff. Screaming, Dollsy punk with a bad attitude. Slappy, Jeff, Jimi and Jaybird lay down the swarthiest groove this side of "Exile On The Main Street". All the show stoppers are here: "Planet Dirt", "My Machine", "St. Jon", and more. Loud, fast, dirty and in your flippin' face. Debi Dip Real Life In A Big City, L.A., CA. USA Satan Panonski Nuklearne olimpijske igre (Nuclear Olympic Games), cass & CD Get it, there's 24 songs on this thing, all in croatian (I think) but with such titles as "Sexualni distonalitet" and "Kiss My Cock". And it comes with an illustrated booklet with English translations of the lyrics. Catcher II, the frontman and writer, is punk rock to the max, and weird too. I don't know, you finish this one Ed. Well Dip, it's out there alright. A real mixed bag of thrash, plod, and contemporary music fronted by one bizzare crooner. I can't understand a word but images of frustrated cats trying to escape from cloth bags sinking into icy water come vividly to mind...not bad stuff. Debi Dip & Ed Real Life In The Big City, L.A., CA, USA Hali Gali Halid Samo za tebe, cass Remember the music Natasha played and sang on the "Adams Family"? Harooooooo. Well, this is one bizzare band. The musical attack is similar to a number of other stable mates with your basic guitar, bass and drums flailing away at mid to fast tempo but the vocals...the vocals...the singer sounds like an Indian Fakir (and probably isn't a real Indian come to think of it) with undulating, never ending words in every phrase. Of course, it's all sung in a strange (to my ears) tongue and as things progress the music gets more and more eastern sounding. At one point it almost sounds like they made a cheap recording of a song and ran the whole thing through a guitar amp with maximum distortion. Out there! Debi Dip Real Life In The Big City, L.A., CA, USA Hali Gali Halid Vo-zdra, 7" & CD Here's a record that will shake you out of your complacent cultural easy chair. This 4-song 7 inch was recorded in 1991 and features Turkish folk melodies and lyrics (at least I THINK it's Turkish), noise-damage guitar, droning fuzz bass, and a heavy rock beat. One song is "free form" and there's a strong sense of experimentalism throughout. Unlike Westernstyle rock, this music follows the singing. Comparisons are hard to come by and not wholly accurate: Can, Suicide, Gene Vincent, Richard Hell. Instead of buying yet another "pop-punk" waste of vinyl, why not expose your sensibilities to a REAL punk record? This is it. Tony Fate Flipside, CA, USA Pokvarena mata cass Raunchy garage stuff here with an early punk feel to it. A few cuts get a bit long, but these guys have the "rock" sound down well. WG Maximumrocknroll, CA, USA Machine Gun Put za Nakovo, cass & CD The sound is not unlike the faster ZZ Top songs from Tres Hombres. Ten Years After on speed also comes to mind. The production could be better (the drums sound like cardboard boxes almost) but the songs are wonderfull and the whole thing sorta grows on you. Being from Croatia, the band's messages are lost on these English speaking ears (do your ears speak? Mine do). Debi Dip Real Life In The Big City, L.A., CA, USA The Spoons Take The World As It Comes, cass & CD The Spoons are 60's and 70's devotees to the max. I get the impression that the vocals have been memorized phoneticaly, but they sound plenty impassioned for the most part. The songs are all great cover choices from a pair of Stooges ravers, to the Wailers' "Out Of Our Tree", to the Sonics' "Psycho". They also do an original called "The Looker" that is no slouch. If you love covers of 60's tunes done by Croatian garage demons...get this!! Debi Dip R.L.I.T.B.C., L.A., CA, USA Roadrunners Roadrunners, cass & CD The Roadrunners maintain a style all their own. They almost sound hardcore at times, but then they bring the tempo down to a dull roar. It's totally disorienting to listen to songs you don't understand, but at times it seems like I can hear them yelling Doris Day or Sgt. Pepper and I forget for an instant. This is consistently driving though not always frantically like some other bands on the label. Debi Dip Real Life, L.A., CA, USA Skol Čista perverzija, cass & LP Skol is one hard-hitting band. I can't understand a word, but hey, it doesn't matter. The Skol album comes complete with a sheet of lyrics in English. The music is driving, plodding, guitar laden, punk stuff a la 70s English-American kid explosion. At times the guitar breaks into 60s influenced leads that fit in fine with the bass and drums assault. Skol Uzmi i rei, 7" EP I already wrote about Skol which have a killer-bass player and the band knows it too because the bass is mixed all the way up and the direction they're heading to is a mix of punk and jazz not unlikely of Nomeansno (esp. on "Oni dolaze" with bass solo). This new 4 song EP shows a stronger sound than before and opens perspectives for more interesting songs when the other musicians can come up with even better accompaniment for Tot's basslines (a successfull example can be heard in the vocals on "Krik". Mutant Motor Co. cass & CD Another rockin' example of garage mania. This is on a heavy Croatian "Listen Loudest!" label but these guys are from somewhere else (Leeds, England), and with names like Ian Blayney, Colin Booth and Trash Von Tottweiller III, I'd guess England, but they could be from some stateside valley comunity for that matter. Stripped down punk, boogie, Iggy wiggy noise with fair to sub-par production, occasional drum machine, and lots of sonic wash. Side one is studio stuff. Side two is live and includes a ten-minute long tune called "Halfway To Nirvana" that's not unlike a never-ending "Sweet Jane". Debi Dip Real Life, L.A., CA, USA Garage Monsters Never Trust A Monster, cass Zero production but plenty of heart. Amped-up punk rock and it's done the Croatian way. The drums sounds like trash can lids, the guitar and bass are buried in a thick haze but the vocal shine through and crystalize the whole affair. 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's, all are one and one for all. As is tipycal with these Cro bands, I can only guess what they are ranting about. But with song titles like "My Baby", "Trabant", "Freddie Kruger", "Monstrum iz garaze" my guesses are somewhat educated. On other hand, "Ti nisi moja" (You're Not Mine), or "Večeras kad odemo u grad" (Tonight When We Head To Town) could be about President Bush's tortured conscience. Promjene, baby, promjene. Debi Dip Real Life, L.A., CA, USA The Bugs Looking Through, cass Along with the powerful stable of rockin' blues busters, this east European label features a contigent of sixties damaged retro ravers. The Bugs fall into the latter group. The first song is a weird bastardization of the Stones ' "Simpathy For The Devil" called "Papperland". Though all are originals, you can't help but wonder sometimes "where I have heard this before?" So production and English lyrics that aren't just phonetic approximations. Debi Dip Real Life, L.A., CA, USA Don't Don't By Don't, cass Don't is a mid to up tempo rockin' band fronted by a Nico-esque chanteuse who sings in fairly accurate English about love and the teen condition. Decent production and the Cover of "Seasons In The Sun". Debi Dip Real Life, L.A., CA, USA Overflow Through The Department Store, cass & LP ...Overflow with their first vinyl output. Plain ultra-melodic powerfull rock'n'roll. It's those moments that grabbed me the most. They already have an only minor accent and nobody could tell this is a Croatian band and not one of the new American kick ass rock'n'roll bands. All they have to do is get a bit more away from that punk stigma and make an album full of songs like the delicate "Tears On The Farm" with his obvious country influences. They already have a hell of a singer who doesn't need to shout to make his point clear, so guys use this to its full extent on the next record. You showed you've got it in you on this one. Kris Vereth Pitsbull, zine, Belgium Brain Damage Somo Covers, cass Yeah! This is great! Completely insane grungy, distorted Garage-Punk in a definite 60's way! Really primitive production, too. All insane covers of The Sonics, early Rolling Stones ("Empty Heart"), Flamin Groovies, The Sparkles (the umpteenth version of "Ain't No Friend Of Mine", but a totally psycho version), plus some old standards like "Have Love, Will Travel" and "Money". Geez, they even do a cover of The Lyres' "Don't Give It Up Now" which is completely mental sounding. This one gets a "10" for energy level alone, and I think it's my fave on the label! Ghost Riders 1987. 91., cass These guys obviously have the right influences and a cover of The Sonics' "Psycho" that kicks off side one shows promise, as does the next tune called "Sky Sunlight Saxon". Cool organ, good vocals but the guitarist's tendency to do too much wanking in a somewhat Metal style ruins some of the tunes. On what I think are the earlier tunes, there's a more organ-dominated sound which is really great. Their version of "Louie Louie" is pretty demented. I'm not too keen on the cover of The Modern Lovers' "Roadrunner" as they slow it down too much and try to psychedelisize it without much luck, I'm afraid. Still, though, I like about half of this. Aside from the covers, this is sung in Slovenian. Loi dečki Loi dečki, cass Here are nine tracks of some raw and back to basics rock and roll. Tinged with some blues here and there, they get these garage sounds out of the garage and on to tape...full-on DIY. Katz Flipside, CA, USA Mlinski kamen, cass & CD Album has 6 tracks of rock that's sometimes 70-ish, sometimes bluesy, with Croatian lyrics. I can't understand the words, but the tunes are good. The Cardinals Corto Maltese, cass & CD ...with 11 tracks of excellent melodic guitar pop, sometimes with rocky and punky hints. This is probably my favourite of the Listen Loudest! tapes I've heard along with The Bambi Molesters Play Out Of Tune, cass & CD Bambi Molesters play a mixture of noisepop, indie rock, surf, rock'n'roll and blues. Don't Don't by Don't, cass & CD Album has 13 tracks and a magenta inlay. They play tuneful indie rock with punk tinges. Includes a punk-pop cover of Seasons In The Sun. Funnily enough, this song suits the melodic punk genre. Neurotische Keruzo Rosenblume, cass & CD Some would be best described as punk rock'n'roll, others are just plain punk. It's mostly pretty heavy stuff, with lots of aggression and noise, but to me this is more listenable than the really hard kind of punk that's almost like death metal. Suicide Kings High'n'mighty, LP Wailin' sonic blast of dual guitar attack in the tradition of the New York Dolls. This is a total blast of high energy rock and roll that just won't quit. Cool or what!? The Morlocks Wake Me When I'm Dead, cass & LP Raw live tape of the Morlocks with no info beside song titles. It appears to have been recorded after "Submerged Alive" (Epitaph 1987.) because of the inclusion of later material like "Superstupid" and "99 Miles". Less 60's punk and more of a move towards late 60's guitar rock, but still crude beyond belief. Also includes a couple of studio demos that are available on vinyl if you look hard enough.
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