Hello, well that was some semifinal, good thing the Germans weren't paid per goal they might have totally devastated Brazilian football esteem, it was unworthy for any team what Brazilians displayed tonight, after the violence of the quarterfinal they played like deer in the headlight, they maybe relieved their best man wasn't tainted by tonights performance though i doubt Neymar could have done much to prevent the 7-1 defeat. I wonder what effect this will have on tomorrows semi finalists Argentina and The Netherlands are they looking forward to be ripped apart by the Germans or would they prefer to rough up the Brazilians some more.
Today at Aetix we go Pre Ubu, it's basically seventix but then an amazing amount of Aetix glory found it's basis in the seventies which in hindsight delivered an amazing maelstrom of creativity even from the Tombs...N'joy !
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Not to be confused with San Diego-based alt rockers Rocket from the Crypt, Rocket from the Tombs was a mid-'70s Cleveland un-punk outfit best-known as the band that split into two better-known Cleveland punk bands, Pere Ubu and the Dead Boys. Rocket was formed by a reporter for the weekly Cleveland entertainment newspaper The Scene who went by the name of Crocus Behemoth. A portly man with a mound of wild hair, Behemoth had the perfect name, and a reputation as a wild, completely unpredictable stage performer, which in the early days of the group, consisted of wrapping his considerable girth in aluminum foil, wearing Kiss-style makeup, and spray-painting his hair. After numerous musicians came and went, Behemoth met Peter Laughner, a guitarist/songwriter who played at many of the same clubs as RFTT, as a member of Cinderella Backstreet, a now-infamous Cleveland band of which Pretender Chrissie Hynde was briefly a member. Laughner became a fan of Rocket and occasionally joined the band for a song or two. Before long, Laughner and Behemoth became partners, and with the addition of guitarist Gene O'Connor, bassist Craig Bell, and drummer Johnny "Madman" Madansky, Rocket from the Tombs became a fairly stable unit.
Playing high-energy rock influenced by the Stooges and Lou Reed (Laughner's hero), RFTT made a name for itself in the Cleveland club scene, as well as opening for touring thud-rock has-beens like Iron Butterfly. The songs were sharp and acerbic, a worm's-eye view of an entropic Cleveland, an urban area that was then a dying industrial city. Songs like "Life Stinks" and "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo" (both later recorded by Pere Ubu) were indicative of the boredom, anomie, and restlessness felt by the city's pre-punk punks. A mercurial band given to constant internal conflict, Rocket from the Tombs was a group always at odds with itself. One example was the Crocus Behemoth issue; outside of Laughner, no one else in the band could stand his singing (or non-singing, as the case may be). Compounding this were Laughner and Behemoth's arty proclivities, which clashed with the hard rock/heavy metal direction preferred by the rest of the band. In 1975, a scrawny, Iggy-worshipping kid from Youngstown, Ohio named Stiv Bators came to Cleveland and was tried out as lead singer, but he didn't last. Laughner, meanwhile, had met and become friendly with influential rock scribe and fellow gonzo Lester Bangs after sending Bangs a Rocket demo tape that he reviewed favorably for Creem. Soon Laughner was writing for Creem and traveling to New York for a first-hand look at the punk scene at CBGB's. Blown away by Patti Smith and especially Television, Laughner returned to Cleveland only to find that the issue of musical direction was tearing RFTT apart. Within weeks, the band was no more.
Laughner and Behemoth (who at this point was going by his birth name, David Thomas) began Pere Ubu, while Gene O'Connor (then called Cheetah Chrome) and Johnny Madansky (then Johnny Blitz) had wisely remembered to keep Bators' phone number; they called him up and formed the wonderfully scuzzy Dead Boys. Laughner's time as a member of Pere Ubu was short, and by 1976, he was fronting a series of new bands, among them Friction, the Finns, and Peter & the Wolves. Despite this flurry of creativity, which included a good chunk of writing for Creem, Laughner was fueling a substance abuse problem that had reached critical mass, and by 1977, he was dead of liver failure at the age of 25. Both Pere Ubu and the Dead Boys went on to have respectable careers (Ubu more so than the Boys), but the sad legacy of Rocket from the Tombs is that of Peter Laughner, an extremely talented man who didn't live long enough to see his talent rewarded. Over 25 years after their initial demise, the surviving members -- bolstered by Television's Richard Lloyd, Laughner's replacement -- defied the odds by regrouping for an exhilarating June 2003 tour, documented on Rocket Redux. In 2010, this same lineup reconvened in Cleveland for recording sessions. The results were released a year later as Barfly.
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Rocket From the Tombs was a legendary Cleveland band that never issued an album during its existence, but has nevertheless left a definite mark on the city's fruitful punk scene. The band was formed by vocalist David Thomas in June of 1974. Lots of musicians came and went, but the most productive was the gang of Thomas, Laughner, O'Connor, Bell and Madansky. They managed to produce some of the most gritty and biting proto-punk, influenced by the music of The Stooges and Cleveland psychopaths The Electric Eels. After Rocket From the Tombs was disbanded in 1975, Thomas and Laughner continued as Pere Ubu but unfortunately soon after, in 1977, Laughner passed away. O'Connor and Madansky formed Dead Boys, and Bell went to New Haven, CT where he formed punk band Saucers. A lot of the songs they performed in RFTT, like "30 Seconds Over Tokyo" and "Sonic Reducer", remained in the playlists of the newly-formed bands.
The reissue of most of RFTT's available material, ferociously dirty-sounding as it is, was done in 2002, on The Day the Earth Met the Rocket From the Tombs. Such a collection was eagerly anticipated and well received. This prompted Thomas and his bandmates of the past to reform and to record Rocket Redux, a set of studio versions of RFTT songs, with the help of Television guitarist Richard Lloyd, who takes the place of Laughner, and also current Pere Ubu drummer Steve Mehlman.
Rocket From The Tombs - The Day the Earth Met the Rocket ( flac 499mb)
01 Raw Power 1:53
02 So Cold 5:55
03 What Love Is 3:38
04 Ain't It Fun 5:51
05 Transfusion 7:44
06 Life Stinks 3:24
07 Muckraker 4:40
08 30 Seconds Over Tokyo 6:41
09 Satisfaction 0:19
10 Sonic Reducer 4:25
11 Never Gonna Kill Myself Again 2:06
12 Final Solution 4:34
13 Foggy Notion 4:53
14 Amphetamine 5:27
15 Read It & Weep 2:34
16 Seventeen 3:53
17 Frustration 2:13
18 Down In Flames 1:40
19 Search & Destroy 2:18
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Three decades after their formation and 28 years after their initial demise, the members of Cleveland proto-punk band Rocket From the Tombs defied odds by regrouping for an exhilarating June 2003 tour. An outgrowth of those magical gigs, Rocket Redux is designed to capture the forceful set list from those shows in the studio, with the help of Television's Richard Lloyd. Alongside original Rocket vocalist David Thomas (who went on to form the iconic Pere Ubu), bassist Craig Bell, and guitarist Cheetah Chrome (later of the Dead Boys), Lloyd -- who produces, records, and mixes -- plays guitar for the late Peter Laughner, while Ubu drummer Steve Mehlman works the kit for this fiery 12-song disc. In the face of the crude demos and bootlegs that have been the only RFTT recordings to surface until now, it's a thrill to hear the raw, furious blast of "Frustration" loud and clear as it unfolds into the damn near soulful strains of "So Cold." If "What Love Is" is a testament to Chrome and Lloyd's guitar acrobatics or Thomas' captivating growl, Mehlman and Bell's Led Zeppelin-like stomp locates depth in these guttural anthems. Songs made famous after RFTT split into competitive camps, like "Sonic Reducer," "Final Solution," "Life Stinks," and "Ain't It Fun," get reborn here. And when Thomas inquisitively barks, "Ain't it fun when you get so high, you can't come?" it's practically 1975 all over again. These underground punk legends may all be well into their fifties, but there's no absence of energy on this edgy, discordant, and very necessary set. Come to think of it, most bands half their age would kill for the same kind of hustle and undying spirit.
Rocket From The Tombs - Rocket Redux (flac 323mb)
01 Frustration 2:20
02 So Cold 5:33
03 What Love Is 3:38
04 Ain't It Fun 6:20
05 Muckraker 4:05
06 30 Seconds Over Tokyo 7:18
07 Sonic Reducer RFTT 3:46
08 Never Gonna Kill Myself Again 2:13
09 Amphetamin 5:26
10 Down In Flames 2:01
11 Final Solution RFTT 5:40
12 Life Stinks 2:40
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The Dead Boys were one of the first punk bands to escalate the level of violence, nihilism, and pure ugliness of punk rock to extreme new levels. Although considered part of New York's mid-'70s CBGB's scene, all of its bandmembers originally hailed from Cleveland, OH. The group's roots lay in the early-'70s Cleveland cult band Rocket from the Tombs, which included future Dead Boys Cheetah Chrome (aka Gene O'Connor) on guitar, and Johnny Blitz (aka John Madansky) on drums, along with future Pere Ubu members David Thomas and Peter Laughner. The group's sound was a bit too comparable to art rock for Chrome and Blitz's tastes (whose influences included the Stooges, Alice Cooper, and the New York Dolls), and by 1975, Rocket from the Tombs had split up.
Chrome and Blitz decided to enlist local singer Stiv Bators (aka Steve Bator), second guitarist Jimmy Zero (aka William Wilden), and bassist Jeff Magnum (aka Jeff Halmagy), and formed a new group more akin to their musical tastes and dubbed Frankenstein. But the group only managed a handful of local shows before fading away. Noticing that there was an underground punk scene flourishing in New York City's Bowery, the group befriended one of the leading bands from that scene, the Ramones, who had come to Cleveland on a tour stop. At the insistence of Bators, Ramones frontman Joey Ramone helped arrange a tryout for the group at CBGB's, as the whole former Frankenstein band (sans Magnum), made the trek to New York. Not only did the group land a spot at CBGB's, they enlisted the club's owner (Hilly Kristal) as their manager, and signed a recording contract with Sire shortly thereafter.
Changing their name to the Dead Boys (from a line in their song "Down in Flames"), the band caused an immediate splash in their newly adopted hometown, due to Bators' Iggy Pop-esque, audience-bating antics, and the group's vicious three-chord punk rock. The Dead Boys' classic debut, Young Loud & Snotty, was issued in 1977 and produced by rock singer Genya Ravan, with future-renowned producer Bob Clearmountain providing bass. But by the time the Dead Boys launched a supporting tour (including opening slots for their hero Iggy Pop in the U.S. and the Damned over in England), Magnum had signed on once more as the group's bassist. Despite receiving a fair amount of coverage in the rock music press, punk was still misunderstood by most rock fans in the U.S., which resulted in the album not performing up to expectations sales-wise (despite spawning one of punk's great anthems, "Sonic Reducer").
The Dead Boys set their sights on their sophomore effort, which was originally to be produced by Lou Reed (with a working title of "Down to Kill"). But at the insistence of their record company (who was trying to convince the band to soften up their sound a bit to produce a breakthrough hit), the group enlisted former Cream producer (and bassist for early-'70s Cream disciples Mountain) Felix Pappalardi. The match didn't prove to be a fitting one, as the former hippie didn't understand the sonic onslaught of these young punks, resulting in an album that failed to expand on the promise of their debut (it's been rumored that the group unsuccessfully attempted to convince ex-Stooges guitarist James Williamson to take over the production chores from Pappalardi, in a last ditch effort to save the album). With a new title of We Have Come for Your Children, the album spawned another punk classic in "Ain't It Fun," but the disc sold even fewer copies than its predecessor. To add insult to injury, the group was forced off tour for a long period of time, as Blitz was almost killed in a New York City street fight/mugging (a Blitz Benefit concert was held at CBGB's to raise money for the drummer's medical bills, featuring appearances by John Belushi and Divine, as well as members of Blondie, the Ramones, and former Alice Cooper guitarist Glen Buxton).
With their record company pressuring the group to change their sound and their look completely, the Dead Boys split up in 1979. But just a few months later, the band was forced to reunite for the recording of a live album at CBGB's (due to contractual obligations). To get revenge at Sire, Bators purposely sang off-mic, resulting in an (expected) unusable recording (when the album was reissued for the Bomp label several years later, Bators re-recorded his vocals in the studio). Despite splitting up once more shortly afterwards, the Dead Boys would reunite for the odd show here and there throughout the '80s. Bators tried his hand at acting in such films as Polyester and Tapeheads, in addition to pursuing a solo career (1980s new wave Disconnected), before joining forces with ex-members of Sham 69 in the group the Wanderers (who issued a lone album, 1981's Only Lovers Left Alive), and ex-Damned guitarist Brian James in the goth-punk outfit Lords of the New Church (releasing several albums between '82 and '88). Having relocated to Paris, France, Bators then attempted to assemble a punk supergroup, of sorts, which was to have included Johnny Thunders and Dee Dee Ramone, which fizzled out before any recording could get under way. On June 4, 1990, Bators died from injuries sustained after being hit by a car in Paris.
After Bators' death, countless Dead Boys compilations, live sets, and rarities collections were issued, including such titles as Twistin' on the Devil's Fork: Live at CBGB's, Magnificent Chaos, Down in Flames, All This & More, and Liver Than You'll Ever Be, in addition to releases by the pre- Dead Boys outfits Rocket from the Tombs (The Day the Earth Met the Rocket from the Tombs) and Frankenstein (Eve of the Dead Boys: October 1975). Despite only issuing a pair of studio recordings during their brief but colorful career, the Dead Boys' influence on subsequent rock bands continues to be felt to this day, as such acclaimed groups as Guns N' Roses and Pearl Jam covered their songs in the '90s and 2000s.
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Fellow Cleveland types Pere Ubu may have won the artistic kudos for their adventurous, surprising work, but if the goal was just to rock and rock again, the Dead Boys had them totally trumped. As both title phrase and capsule description, Young, Loud & Snotty accurately defines the predominating aesthetic so well that one could just leave it at that, but there's a lot more going on here than on the face of it. With perhaps surprising great production from demi-famous '70s rocket Genya Ravan, the five-some found something sonically smack in-between the US garage/punk heritage of the past and the more modern thrashings from overseas. Bators sneers, gobs, gasps, and whines with the best of them, but he knows his rock history, as does his bandmates. Zero and Chrome aren't guitar virtuosos, but they do know what makes a song great and aren't afraid to concentrate on that, while the Magnum/Blitz rhythm section keeps things moving as it does. In some ways songs like "All This and More" and "I Need Lunch" simply emerge from an alternate '50s, with admittedly much more feedback and stereo sound. Stone cold rock classic "Sonic Reducer" starts things off -- amusingly -- with all sorts of phased drums and other fripperies that later generations wouldn't consider punk at all. That said, it's still blunt, brilliantly sung by Bators and kicks out the jams with messy energy. Other all-time greats include the perfect bored-and-needing-kicks anthem "Ain't Nothin' to Do" and the thoroughly wrong "Caught With the Meat In Your Mouth." There's even a rock oldie -- a cover of "Hey Little Girl" live onstage at spiritual home CBGB's. And why not? With great punk rock and great rock, Young, Loud and Snotty still packs a punch.
Dead Boys - Younger, Louder and Snottyer (flac 190mb)
01 Sonic Reducer 3:09
02 All This And More 2:50
03 What Love Is 2:10
04 Not Anymore 3:41
05 Ain't Nothin' To Do 2:28
06 Caught With The Meat In Your Mouth 2:10
07 Hey Little Girl 3:06
08 I Need Lunch 3:41
09 High Tension Wire 3:08
10 Down In Flames 2:17
11 Search & Destroy (Live) 3:47
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Like the Sex Pistols and N.W.A, the Dead Boys seemed built to self-destruct. The Cleveland punk rockers were so combustible, so reckless, so nihilistic that you figured they couldn't stay together for more than a few years -- and sure enough, the band broke up after only two studio albums. Apart from Young, Loud and Snotty and We Have Come for Your Children, the only other legal Dead Boys album is Night of the Living Dead Boys, which was recorded live at CBGB in New York in March 1979 but didn't come out until 1981 (the year after their breakup). In 1979, CBGB was considered the Village Vanguard of punk and new wave, and it was the perfect venue for the Dead Boys when they played New York. Stiv Bators and friends are as crude and obnoxious as they are inspired on material from Young, Loud and Snotty (including "Sonic Reducer," "Caught With the Meat in Your Mouth" and "What Love Is") and We Have Come for Your Children (most notably, "Son of Sam," "Catholic Boy" and "3rd Generation Nation"). While the Sex Pistols and the Dead Kennedys combined their nihilistic rage, anger and crudeness with strong sociopolitical concerns, the Dead Boys were never really political -- they were a band that thrived on nihilism for its own sake. And if you don't have delicate sensibilities and are blessed with a robust sense of humor, this recording points to the fact that they were also a lot of fun.
Dead Boys - Night Of The Living Dead Boys (flac 309mb)
01 Detention Home 3:39
02 3rd Generation Nation 2:40
03 All This And More 3:01
04 Caught With The Meat In Your Mouth 2:25
05 Tell Me 2:50
06 Catholic Boy 2:50
07 Won't Look Back 2:43
08 Ain't It Fun 4:41
09 What Love Is 2:18
10 Ain't Nothin' To Do 2:36
11 I Need Lunch 3:48
12 Son Of Sam 5:15
13 Sonic Reducer 3:36
Today at Aetix we go Pre Ubu, it's basically seventix but then an amazing amount of Aetix glory found it's basis in the seventies which in hindsight delivered an amazing maelstrom of creativity even from the Tombs...N'joy !
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Not to be confused with San Diego-based alt rockers Rocket from the Crypt, Rocket from the Tombs was a mid-'70s Cleveland un-punk outfit best-known as the band that split into two better-known Cleveland punk bands, Pere Ubu and the Dead Boys. Rocket was formed by a reporter for the weekly Cleveland entertainment newspaper The Scene who went by the name of Crocus Behemoth. A portly man with a mound of wild hair, Behemoth had the perfect name, and a reputation as a wild, completely unpredictable stage performer, which in the early days of the group, consisted of wrapping his considerable girth in aluminum foil, wearing Kiss-style makeup, and spray-painting his hair. After numerous musicians came and went, Behemoth met Peter Laughner, a guitarist/songwriter who played at many of the same clubs as RFTT, as a member of Cinderella Backstreet, a now-infamous Cleveland band of which Pretender Chrissie Hynde was briefly a member. Laughner became a fan of Rocket and occasionally joined the band for a song or two. Before long, Laughner and Behemoth became partners, and with the addition of guitarist Gene O'Connor, bassist Craig Bell, and drummer Johnny "Madman" Madansky, Rocket from the Tombs became a fairly stable unit.
Playing high-energy rock influenced by the Stooges and Lou Reed (Laughner's hero), RFTT made a name for itself in the Cleveland club scene, as well as opening for touring thud-rock has-beens like Iron Butterfly. The songs were sharp and acerbic, a worm's-eye view of an entropic Cleveland, an urban area that was then a dying industrial city. Songs like "Life Stinks" and "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo" (both later recorded by Pere Ubu) were indicative of the boredom, anomie, and restlessness felt by the city's pre-punk punks. A mercurial band given to constant internal conflict, Rocket from the Tombs was a group always at odds with itself. One example was the Crocus Behemoth issue; outside of Laughner, no one else in the band could stand his singing (or non-singing, as the case may be). Compounding this were Laughner and Behemoth's arty proclivities, which clashed with the hard rock/heavy metal direction preferred by the rest of the band. In 1975, a scrawny, Iggy-worshipping kid from Youngstown, Ohio named Stiv Bators came to Cleveland and was tried out as lead singer, but he didn't last. Laughner, meanwhile, had met and become friendly with influential rock scribe and fellow gonzo Lester Bangs after sending Bangs a Rocket demo tape that he reviewed favorably for Creem. Soon Laughner was writing for Creem and traveling to New York for a first-hand look at the punk scene at CBGB's. Blown away by Patti Smith and especially Television, Laughner returned to Cleveland only to find that the issue of musical direction was tearing RFTT apart. Within weeks, the band was no more.
Laughner and Behemoth (who at this point was going by his birth name, David Thomas) began Pere Ubu, while Gene O'Connor (then called Cheetah Chrome) and Johnny Madansky (then Johnny Blitz) had wisely remembered to keep Bators' phone number; they called him up and formed the wonderfully scuzzy Dead Boys. Laughner's time as a member of Pere Ubu was short, and by 1976, he was fronting a series of new bands, among them Friction, the Finns, and Peter & the Wolves. Despite this flurry of creativity, which included a good chunk of writing for Creem, Laughner was fueling a substance abuse problem that had reached critical mass, and by 1977, he was dead of liver failure at the age of 25. Both Pere Ubu and the Dead Boys went on to have respectable careers (Ubu more so than the Boys), but the sad legacy of Rocket from the Tombs is that of Peter Laughner, an extremely talented man who didn't live long enough to see his talent rewarded. Over 25 years after their initial demise, the surviving members -- bolstered by Television's Richard Lloyd, Laughner's replacement -- defied the odds by regrouping for an exhilarating June 2003 tour, documented on Rocket Redux. In 2010, this same lineup reconvened in Cleveland for recording sessions. The results were released a year later as Barfly.
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Rocket From the Tombs was a legendary Cleveland band that never issued an album during its existence, but has nevertheless left a definite mark on the city's fruitful punk scene. The band was formed by vocalist David Thomas in June of 1974. Lots of musicians came and went, but the most productive was the gang of Thomas, Laughner, O'Connor, Bell and Madansky. They managed to produce some of the most gritty and biting proto-punk, influenced by the music of The Stooges and Cleveland psychopaths The Electric Eels. After Rocket From the Tombs was disbanded in 1975, Thomas and Laughner continued as Pere Ubu but unfortunately soon after, in 1977, Laughner passed away. O'Connor and Madansky formed Dead Boys, and Bell went to New Haven, CT where he formed punk band Saucers. A lot of the songs they performed in RFTT, like "30 Seconds Over Tokyo" and "Sonic Reducer", remained in the playlists of the newly-formed bands.
The reissue of most of RFTT's available material, ferociously dirty-sounding as it is, was done in 2002, on The Day the Earth Met the Rocket From the Tombs. Such a collection was eagerly anticipated and well received. This prompted Thomas and his bandmates of the past to reform and to record Rocket Redux, a set of studio versions of RFTT songs, with the help of Television guitarist Richard Lloyd, who takes the place of Laughner, and also current Pere Ubu drummer Steve Mehlman.
Rocket From The Tombs - The Day the Earth Met the Rocket ( flac 499mb)
01 Raw Power 1:53
02 So Cold 5:55
03 What Love Is 3:38
04 Ain't It Fun 5:51
05 Transfusion 7:44
06 Life Stinks 3:24
07 Muckraker 4:40
08 30 Seconds Over Tokyo 6:41
09 Satisfaction 0:19
10 Sonic Reducer 4:25
11 Never Gonna Kill Myself Again 2:06
12 Final Solution 4:34
13 Foggy Notion 4:53
14 Amphetamine 5:27
15 Read It & Weep 2:34
16 Seventeen 3:53
17 Frustration 2:13
18 Down In Flames 1:40
19 Search & Destroy 2:18
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Three decades after their formation and 28 years after their initial demise, the members of Cleveland proto-punk band Rocket From the Tombs defied odds by regrouping for an exhilarating June 2003 tour. An outgrowth of those magical gigs, Rocket Redux is designed to capture the forceful set list from those shows in the studio, with the help of Television's Richard Lloyd. Alongside original Rocket vocalist David Thomas (who went on to form the iconic Pere Ubu), bassist Craig Bell, and guitarist Cheetah Chrome (later of the Dead Boys), Lloyd -- who produces, records, and mixes -- plays guitar for the late Peter Laughner, while Ubu drummer Steve Mehlman works the kit for this fiery 12-song disc. In the face of the crude demos and bootlegs that have been the only RFTT recordings to surface until now, it's a thrill to hear the raw, furious blast of "Frustration" loud and clear as it unfolds into the damn near soulful strains of "So Cold." If "What Love Is" is a testament to Chrome and Lloyd's guitar acrobatics or Thomas' captivating growl, Mehlman and Bell's Led Zeppelin-like stomp locates depth in these guttural anthems. Songs made famous after RFTT split into competitive camps, like "Sonic Reducer," "Final Solution," "Life Stinks," and "Ain't It Fun," get reborn here. And when Thomas inquisitively barks, "Ain't it fun when you get so high, you can't come?" it's practically 1975 all over again. These underground punk legends may all be well into their fifties, but there's no absence of energy on this edgy, discordant, and very necessary set. Come to think of it, most bands half their age would kill for the same kind of hustle and undying spirit.
Rocket From The Tombs - Rocket Redux (flac 323mb)
01 Frustration 2:20
02 So Cold 5:33
03 What Love Is 3:38
04 Ain't It Fun 6:20
05 Muckraker 4:05
06 30 Seconds Over Tokyo 7:18
07 Sonic Reducer RFTT 3:46
08 Never Gonna Kill Myself Again 2:13
09 Amphetamin 5:26
10 Down In Flames 2:01
11 Final Solution RFTT 5:40
12 Life Stinks 2:40
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
The Dead Boys were one of the first punk bands to escalate the level of violence, nihilism, and pure ugliness of punk rock to extreme new levels. Although considered part of New York's mid-'70s CBGB's scene, all of its bandmembers originally hailed from Cleveland, OH. The group's roots lay in the early-'70s Cleveland cult band Rocket from the Tombs, which included future Dead Boys Cheetah Chrome (aka Gene O'Connor) on guitar, and Johnny Blitz (aka John Madansky) on drums, along with future Pere Ubu members David Thomas and Peter Laughner. The group's sound was a bit too comparable to art rock for Chrome and Blitz's tastes (whose influences included the Stooges, Alice Cooper, and the New York Dolls), and by 1975, Rocket from the Tombs had split up.
Chrome and Blitz decided to enlist local singer Stiv Bators (aka Steve Bator), second guitarist Jimmy Zero (aka William Wilden), and bassist Jeff Magnum (aka Jeff Halmagy), and formed a new group more akin to their musical tastes and dubbed Frankenstein. But the group only managed a handful of local shows before fading away. Noticing that there was an underground punk scene flourishing in New York City's Bowery, the group befriended one of the leading bands from that scene, the Ramones, who had come to Cleveland on a tour stop. At the insistence of Bators, Ramones frontman Joey Ramone helped arrange a tryout for the group at CBGB's, as the whole former Frankenstein band (sans Magnum), made the trek to New York. Not only did the group land a spot at CBGB's, they enlisted the club's owner (Hilly Kristal) as their manager, and signed a recording contract with Sire shortly thereafter.
Changing their name to the Dead Boys (from a line in their song "Down in Flames"), the band caused an immediate splash in their newly adopted hometown, due to Bators' Iggy Pop-esque, audience-bating antics, and the group's vicious three-chord punk rock. The Dead Boys' classic debut, Young Loud & Snotty, was issued in 1977 and produced by rock singer Genya Ravan, with future-renowned producer Bob Clearmountain providing bass. But by the time the Dead Boys launched a supporting tour (including opening slots for their hero Iggy Pop in the U.S. and the Damned over in England), Magnum had signed on once more as the group's bassist. Despite receiving a fair amount of coverage in the rock music press, punk was still misunderstood by most rock fans in the U.S., which resulted in the album not performing up to expectations sales-wise (despite spawning one of punk's great anthems, "Sonic Reducer").
The Dead Boys set their sights on their sophomore effort, which was originally to be produced by Lou Reed (with a working title of "Down to Kill"). But at the insistence of their record company (who was trying to convince the band to soften up their sound a bit to produce a breakthrough hit), the group enlisted former Cream producer (and bassist for early-'70s Cream disciples Mountain) Felix Pappalardi. The match didn't prove to be a fitting one, as the former hippie didn't understand the sonic onslaught of these young punks, resulting in an album that failed to expand on the promise of their debut (it's been rumored that the group unsuccessfully attempted to convince ex-Stooges guitarist James Williamson to take over the production chores from Pappalardi, in a last ditch effort to save the album). With a new title of We Have Come for Your Children, the album spawned another punk classic in "Ain't It Fun," but the disc sold even fewer copies than its predecessor. To add insult to injury, the group was forced off tour for a long period of time, as Blitz was almost killed in a New York City street fight/mugging (a Blitz Benefit concert was held at CBGB's to raise money for the drummer's medical bills, featuring appearances by John Belushi and Divine, as well as members of Blondie, the Ramones, and former Alice Cooper guitarist Glen Buxton).
With their record company pressuring the group to change their sound and their look completely, the Dead Boys split up in 1979. But just a few months later, the band was forced to reunite for the recording of a live album at CBGB's (due to contractual obligations). To get revenge at Sire, Bators purposely sang off-mic, resulting in an (expected) unusable recording (when the album was reissued for the Bomp label several years later, Bators re-recorded his vocals in the studio). Despite splitting up once more shortly afterwards, the Dead Boys would reunite for the odd show here and there throughout the '80s. Bators tried his hand at acting in such films as Polyester and Tapeheads, in addition to pursuing a solo career (1980s new wave Disconnected), before joining forces with ex-members of Sham 69 in the group the Wanderers (who issued a lone album, 1981's Only Lovers Left Alive), and ex-Damned guitarist Brian James in the goth-punk outfit Lords of the New Church (releasing several albums between '82 and '88). Having relocated to Paris, France, Bators then attempted to assemble a punk supergroup, of sorts, which was to have included Johnny Thunders and Dee Dee Ramone, which fizzled out before any recording could get under way. On June 4, 1990, Bators died from injuries sustained after being hit by a car in Paris.
After Bators' death, countless Dead Boys compilations, live sets, and rarities collections were issued, including such titles as Twistin' on the Devil's Fork: Live at CBGB's, Magnificent Chaos, Down in Flames, All This & More, and Liver Than You'll Ever Be, in addition to releases by the pre- Dead Boys outfits Rocket from the Tombs (The Day the Earth Met the Rocket from the Tombs) and Frankenstein (Eve of the Dead Boys: October 1975). Despite only issuing a pair of studio recordings during their brief but colorful career, the Dead Boys' influence on subsequent rock bands continues to be felt to this day, as such acclaimed groups as Guns N' Roses and Pearl Jam covered their songs in the '90s and 2000s.
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Fellow Cleveland types Pere Ubu may have won the artistic kudos for their adventurous, surprising work, but if the goal was just to rock and rock again, the Dead Boys had them totally trumped. As both title phrase and capsule description, Young, Loud & Snotty accurately defines the predominating aesthetic so well that one could just leave it at that, but there's a lot more going on here than on the face of it. With perhaps surprising great production from demi-famous '70s rocket Genya Ravan, the five-some found something sonically smack in-between the US garage/punk heritage of the past and the more modern thrashings from overseas. Bators sneers, gobs, gasps, and whines with the best of them, but he knows his rock history, as does his bandmates. Zero and Chrome aren't guitar virtuosos, but they do know what makes a song great and aren't afraid to concentrate on that, while the Magnum/Blitz rhythm section keeps things moving as it does. In some ways songs like "All This and More" and "I Need Lunch" simply emerge from an alternate '50s, with admittedly much more feedback and stereo sound. Stone cold rock classic "Sonic Reducer" starts things off -- amusingly -- with all sorts of phased drums and other fripperies that later generations wouldn't consider punk at all. That said, it's still blunt, brilliantly sung by Bators and kicks out the jams with messy energy. Other all-time greats include the perfect bored-and-needing-kicks anthem "Ain't Nothin' to Do" and the thoroughly wrong "Caught With the Meat In Your Mouth." There's even a rock oldie -- a cover of "Hey Little Girl" live onstage at spiritual home CBGB's. And why not? With great punk rock and great rock, Young, Loud and Snotty still packs a punch.
Dead Boys - Younger, Louder and Snottyer (flac 190mb)
01 Sonic Reducer 3:09
02 All This And More 2:50
03 What Love Is 2:10
04 Not Anymore 3:41
05 Ain't Nothin' To Do 2:28
06 Caught With The Meat In Your Mouth 2:10
07 Hey Little Girl 3:06
08 I Need Lunch 3:41
09 High Tension Wire 3:08
10 Down In Flames 2:17
11 Search & Destroy (Live) 3:47
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Like the Sex Pistols and N.W.A, the Dead Boys seemed built to self-destruct. The Cleveland punk rockers were so combustible, so reckless, so nihilistic that you figured they couldn't stay together for more than a few years -- and sure enough, the band broke up after only two studio albums. Apart from Young, Loud and Snotty and We Have Come for Your Children, the only other legal Dead Boys album is Night of the Living Dead Boys, which was recorded live at CBGB in New York in March 1979 but didn't come out until 1981 (the year after their breakup). In 1979, CBGB was considered the Village Vanguard of punk and new wave, and it was the perfect venue for the Dead Boys when they played New York. Stiv Bators and friends are as crude and obnoxious as they are inspired on material from Young, Loud and Snotty (including "Sonic Reducer," "Caught With the Meat in Your Mouth" and "What Love Is") and We Have Come for Your Children (most notably, "Son of Sam," "Catholic Boy" and "3rd Generation Nation"). While the Sex Pistols and the Dead Kennedys combined their nihilistic rage, anger and crudeness with strong sociopolitical concerns, the Dead Boys were never really political -- they were a band that thrived on nihilism for its own sake. And if you don't have delicate sensibilities and are blessed with a robust sense of humor, this recording points to the fact that they were also a lot of fun.
Dead Boys - Night Of The Living Dead Boys (flac 309mb)
01 Detention Home 3:39
02 3rd Generation Nation 2:40
03 All This And More 3:01
04 Caught With The Meat In Your Mouth 2:25
05 Tell Me 2:50
06 Catholic Boy 2:50
07 Won't Look Back 2:43
08 Ain't It Fun 4:41
09 What Love Is 2:18
10 Ain't Nothin' To Do 2:36
11 I Need Lunch 3:48
12 Son Of Sam 5:15
13 Sonic Reducer 3:36
hi rho
ReplyDeletecan you re-up rocket from the tombs please?
thanks.
s.
I would like too... Thanks
ReplyDeleteHello Rho,
ReplyDeleteBefore we leave all the dead things from this year behind us, could you please re-post the Dead Boys? Thanks!
hi rho
ReplyDeleteI'm interest too in a re-up of rocket from the tombs?
thanks.
Have a nice day
please re up the Dead Boys,and thanks for all the great music and hard work.
ReplyDeleteCould you please re-upload the "Dead Boys - Night Of The Living Dead Boys"? I love this record and its sound in flac will surely beat my old record and worn stylus. I must change the stylus the soonest :)
ReplyDelete