For the last six months I’ve been making very slow progress on a feature on the Resonars/Matt Rendon for Off The Hip. During that time Matt has made passing remarks about recovering from his Vultures experience and getting back to playing well with others.
Thus he’s now in a band called Foolscap Fire and these guys. Recorded on the same four-track set-up as the Resonars, this sounds nothing like them. NASCAR should just forget about that truck circuit and go with alcohol-powered Steamrollers: this record flattens anything in its way as it slams through its thirteen chunes in under 32 minutes.
The antecedents are all Prime, A1 Rock and Roll: a bit of Kick Out The Jams MC5, a twist of I’m Stranded Saints, a dash of Stink Replacements (with better fidelity and without the Hardcore affectations, except for that spritz in It’s Not True) a soupç on of Honest John Plain[Boys]-era Lurkers and a pinch of the Devil Dogs, though with two guitars (which I guess would make them the Rat Bastards).
The album opens with the clattering but paced Reject Button, which rides in on a feedback-tinged, full-on intro, then all drops out for a terse, overly familiar bass solo that sets the hook like we’re a big mouth bass. The song peppers along from there on a solid rhythm touched by what sounds like wood blocks while honing to its loose melody with spiked lead & faint, scruffy backing vocals and a tight, sharp-edged guitar solo.
They kick into fifth gear with the chugging My Initial Salvo, which is followed by three more ass kicking, slashing rockers. There are no ballads to be found, but on occasion the Pills drop down into third gear.
Confused is the first: a modified Bo Diddley rhythm, echo-laden, mournful Blues harp and similarly treated, single repeating word, Garage-Rock chorus, with which it starts, but hopped-up verses and a stretched out instrumental break. At 4’03” it is the longest number here.
Then things rev back up for the curt Sassy Sue. The Lov’d One (not to be confused with the Loved Ones self-titled classic tune) is arguably the Poppiest tune, built on a series of Entwistleian bass runs, slicing guitars, solid backing vocals and semi-controlled lead. The one semi-hitch “in their geddiup” is the closing End Has Just Begun which is strewn with a distracting distortion and is stretched out a bit too long at 3’52”.
This record is packed with great, formidable Rock. I only touched on a few numbers but it all shreds. An involuntary reflex action is to hit play over and over again, especially with a clear highway in front of you and no cops until the state line. The first of its kind I’ve come across this year.
[Released by Dead Beat 2003]
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