Back in the days when variety shows were a staple on television there would be some dancer type that would come out on occasion and do some scene where their moves looked all clumsy and/or drunk. They were some pretty grand moves and were done for laughs. Watching at home there would always be a grandma who would state the obvious to everyone else who was gathered around the TV by saying something like "It is just an act but only a great dancer like himself can do moves like that to make us believe he is half in the bag and has two left feet."
The last couple of years or so there has been a new wave of lunkhead themed punk rock bands. Simple and straight-ahead two or three chords (and a the rare fourth if the songs reaches past the two and a half minute point) and lyrics that intentionally border on being a parody of your standard punk rock song topics.
The thing is though to pull it off and make songs that are worth repeated listens, a band has to be a quite a bit more clever than they are letting on.
On the surface, Florida's Gino and the Goons distilling the high points of the mid 90s to early 00s brain rattled by Chuck Berry/Ramones/Little Richard/Stones garage punk is some of the most valiant being belligerent enough to be kicked out of every in town kind of rock-n-roll since, well, the mid 90s and early 00s, fit right into that.
The thing is though scratch at the big dummy veneer and it's learned that this isn't just another trio of lamebrains. The band totally knows what they are doing.
Three big blasts of a power chord on the record's opener "Got The Skinny" drop you onto beer stinky floor that makes your knees go one way and your hips go the other. Gino's raspy swagger bellowing about some of shifty folks he's met and what the world's got him doing ("not eating cuz' I'm so damn depressed") sounds celebratory in a still being able to wake up in the morning and make it through the day kinda way. His guitar blast and the Goons set down a serious beat & rhythm and drop gang harmonies and woos wherever warranted.
Tracks like "Baby Doll", "Can't Get Away With Murder" and "Check This Out" show that the band attended multiple weekly services of the Church of Thunders at some point in their life. The first former, a way less blurry eyed and much more determined Heartbreakers blaster, takes the "my girl so fine" cliches and uses the again but they're rearranged in a cunning way that makes ya think "Damn, she must REALLY be a fine one" and a laugh to boot. The two latter are trash blues grinds that answers the question "What if someone combined the the New York Dolls with the Oblivians? And they did it right?!"
It's should be noted that the calling out "KICK DRUM" for a break on "I Don't" has lead me to shouting the same thing anytime someone tells me a cool rock-n-roll story. The album closers with firecrackers getting thrown into a bucket of slime "Sex, Drugs & Paranoia". You'll think about it next time you're at the ATM.
www.slovenly.com
The thing is though to pull it off and make songs that are worth repeated listens, a band has to be a quite a bit more clever than they are letting on.
On the surface, Florida's Gino and the Goons distilling the high points of the mid 90s to early 00s brain rattled by Chuck Berry/Ramones/Little Richard/Stones garage punk is some of the most valiant being belligerent enough to be kicked out of every in town kind of rock-n-roll since, well, the mid 90s and early 00s, fit right into that.
The thing is though scratch at the big dummy veneer and it's learned that this isn't just another trio of lamebrains. The band totally knows what they are doing.
Three big blasts of a power chord on the record's opener "Got The Skinny" drop you onto beer stinky floor that makes your knees go one way and your hips go the other. Gino's raspy swagger bellowing about some of shifty folks he's met and what the world's got him doing ("not eating cuz' I'm so damn depressed") sounds celebratory in a still being able to wake up in the morning and make it through the day kinda way. His guitar blast and the Goons set down a serious beat & rhythm and drop gang harmonies and woos wherever warranted.
Tracks like "Baby Doll", "Can't Get Away With Murder" and "Check This Out" show that the band attended multiple weekly services of the Church of Thunders at some point in their life. The first former, a way less blurry eyed and much more determined Heartbreakers blaster, takes the "my girl so fine" cliches and uses the again but they're rearranged in a cunning way that makes ya think "Damn, she must REALLY be a fine one" and a laugh to boot. The two latter are trash blues grinds that answers the question "What if someone combined the the New York Dolls with the Oblivians? And they did it right?!"
It's should be noted that the calling out "KICK DRUM" for a break on "I Don't" has lead me to shouting the same thing anytime someone tells me a cool rock-n-roll story. The album closers with firecrackers getting thrown into a bucket of slime "Sex, Drugs & Paranoia". You'll think about it next time you're at the ATM.
www.slovenly.com
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