Nite Songs

  Hailing from Chicago, this is the Poison Boys' second album and after hearing a few of the singles leading up to it and enjoying their New York Dolls/Stooges style sleaziness, I was looking forward to hearing it. So, have they delivered on the potential of those singles then? Let's find out shall we?... The title track opens things here and is a prime slice of Dollsy low-slung swagger with a cheeky nod to the Stones' Start Me Up . The excellently titled Livin' On The Edge Of The Knife  quickly pops the tempo up a notch with a scuzzy slice of Dictators style street-punk with some added honky tonk piano just to add to the sleaze factor. Those with fond memories of bands like the Heart Attacks and the Chelsea Smiles from a decade or so ago should find plenty to like with this one. Day By Day  disappointingly isn't a cover of the old Generation X classic but don't worry, it's still a high octane slice of Stooges menace with some Dead Boys style flamethrower gu...

  It's fair to say that L.A. Guns' workrate has been impressive over the last few years since Phil Lewis and Tracii Guns decided to reunite to give things another go. 2017's The Missing Peace  and 2019's The Devil You Know  were the sound of a band rejuvenated packing an added heaviness which proved that this band were doing anything but quietly sticking to their trademark sound. And now with Checkered Past , the current incarnation of the band might just have come up with their strongest effort yet. Opener Cannonball  kicks in with a scuzzy Slaughter & The Dogs style riff from Tracii before Phil's snarling vocals kick in - it's like a heavier version of One More Reason  from the band's classic debut. The sleazy strut of Bad Luck Charm  meanwhile sounds like something that could've sat on Cocked And Loaded  albeit with a more stripped down back-to-basics sound which suits it down to the ground. The freewheeling Living Right Now  sounds like so...

  "Rats in the cellar, screams in my head, I look in the mirror, I look like I'm dead"  - L.A. Guns  - Why Ain't I Bleeding? The mid-'90s were a tough time for sleaze rock. When grunge hit, it pretty much brought on a nuclear winter for the genre which almost overnight went from in vogue to about as out of fashion as you could get. Some bands were simply instantly sunk by the tidal wave while others attempted to swim with it by changing to a heavier sound. It maybe goes without saying that the vast majority of the latter though would fail miserably as they just couldn't carry off the change convincingly. There were, however, the odd exceptions and one of them is the album we're covering today, L.A. Guns' 1994 effort Vicious Circle . I was probably a year or so too late to get into L.A. Guns back in the day (although I remember seeing the video for Some Lie 4 Love  on the ITV Chart Show Rock Top 10) despite them being that most rate of beasts, a Sunset ...

  Hailing from Birmingham, Suckerpunch describe themselves as the missing link between the Wildhearts and GBH so the initial signs for this one were good. Having listened to An Eye For A Lie , I can definitely hear elements of both of the above in there but it's not quite the whole story. The opening duo of the gammon-skewering  I Zombie and the equally angry View From The Moodswings  show a political awareness to the lyrics and have some impressive machine gun drumming and dextrous guitar work while Weaponised Idiot  takes the heaviness up another notch into almost Motorhead-esque territory. The lyrics remain thoughtful throughout - Obsessive No 7  and 3 Days both deal with depression and Instagrudge  takes aim at web-based "influencers" although Kayfabe Baby  adds a bit of humour into the mix by comparing relationships to wrestling! The group remain tight and focused throughout with some good musicianship on here although my only slight complaint is ...

  It's probably the oldest trick in the book I realise but it's still safe to say that if your band name includes a New York Dolls reference then it's likely to catch our attention here at Nite Songs. So yeah, it's safe to say that Big Apple natives Mystery Girl's moniker alone might just have been a key factor in drawing them to our attention. In truth though, this self-titled album is less Johnny Thunders and more Johnny Ramone with the sugar sweet melodies, garbled Joey-style vocals and the fact that they speed through the 11 tracks here in under 25 minutes being pure bruddas territory. And to be honest, it's not bad with the likes of Lipstick Traces and the strutting Chandelier  including some good Thunders/Cheetah Chrome style guitar work proving that the Dolls influence is there, it's just in the background a bit. Elsewhere the pacy Hurting Hands  owes a sly nod to Holiday In Cambodia  with its opening riff and Head On A Stake , Six Bends  and I Love K...

  "This ain't nothin' really new, everything's just tried and true, sure the name may change but the product's still the same..."  - Black Halos  - Retro World There was a weird moment around the turn of the millennium where it felt as if Canada was making a sly play to become the world centre for cool rock 'n' roll bands. I remember in my early twenties discovering the Black Halos, Danko Jones and Crash Kelly in quick succession, all very different groups but all of whom well and truly kicked arse. Add to that others such as Robin Black and the IRS and the Red Light Rippers and it really did feel like something was starting to stir in the Great White North. I first encountered the Black Halos some time around 2002 via a split Christmas single they'd done with fellow SFTJ alumni Bubble on notorious Sunderland label ChangesOne (who also had the likes of Antiproduct , the Diamond Dogs, Broken Teeth, the Streetwalkin' Cheetahs, Darrell Bath and ...

  We've run into the Bitch Queens a few times in the Singles Bar in the last year or so. Barrelling out of Basel with all the subtlety of a cannonball to the face, their ultra-vicious take on garage rock marks them out as a Swiss version of the Hip Priests with both bands sharing a love of the seedier side of rock 'n' roll and a zero fucks given mentality. Custom Dystopia  is no less than their fifth album and given their past record, it has a fair bit to live up to. Similar to previous release, it's as feral and furious as you'd expect it to be with nods to all the best bands of this genre - the Stooges, Turbonegro, imperial phase Backyard Babies etc. There's plenty of righteous anger on here as well with the likes of Don't Be That Dude  basically urging people not to be dicks to each other and the likes of Brainwash Radio ,  Ignorance Is Bliss  and A Good Day To Forget  railing against the mundanity of everyday life. Best of all is This Is How We Roll In ...

  Long time residents on the excellent Acetate records roster, Nine Pound Hammer are probably best known for being Blaine from Nashville Pussy's "other band" (though they actually pre-date NP having started out way back in 1985 before reforming in the early years of the millennium and kicking on ever since).  Hand on heart, I'd only heard one of their albums before in the form of 2007's Sex, Drugs And Bill Monroe  but it was a proper scuzzed-up slice of cowpunk as evidenced by songs like Too Sorry To Shit  and Mama's Doin' Meth Again . With Daniel Rey, best known for his work with the Ramones and the Dictators, in the producer's chair for this one, When The Shit Goes Down  is very much cut from the same cloth - like all the best Jason & The Scorchers or Bob Wayne records, it's the sound of a bunch of redneck ne'er do wells plugging in in the barn and kicking up an absolute storm. You can definitely hear Rey bringing a hint of da Bruddas to ...

  You know what you're getting when it comes to the Chuck Norris Experiment. Now on no less than their tenth album, these Swedes continue to specialise in the sort of scummy dirty rock 'n' roll that you can trace back through all the best rock bands from the Hip Priests all the way back through the Dead Boys and AC/DC to the Stooges. This album may have been recorded remotely during lockdown last year but from the sheer ferociousness on show here, you'd never know it. Tunes like Dirtshot , Hand Grenade  and Kill The Night  are pure three minute adrenalin blasts which rip out of your speakers like an unleashed hellcat without even considering going below breakneck speed and are all the better for it. At the other end of the scale, the lumbering In For The Kill  rumbles through with a similar lurching boogie to Motorhead's No Class  and the ominous Devil's Lake  could almost be early Danzig if you squint a bit. And just in case you’d written this band off as ...

  The prospect of a new album from Lowestoft's daftest is never something you'll hear us complaining about here at Nite Songs. Since reforming a decade or so ago, the band have been on a pretty solid run with three of the four albums they've done since then being solid additions to the band's catalogue. Opener Welcome Tae Glasgae barrels through on a solid headbanger of a riff but it's second track It's Love Jim  that kicks things into gear properly with its joky Star Trek based lyrics, pounding drums and guitars and Justin's trademark falsetto being used just to the right degree to make things work. One thing that you'll notice about the early tracks on Motorheart  is that they've got a refreshingly stripped-back feel with an almost garage rock like intensity to the songs. Given that the Darkness have more than once in the past fallen into the trap of over-egging the musical pudding to the detriment of the tunes, it's quite refreshing to hear th...

  "'Ey dude, let's party..."  - W.A.S.P.  - Blind In Texas W.A.S.P. were probably one of the last few glam metal bands to hang on in the charts after the grunge nuclear winter hit and ironically it was early '92 when I first got into 'em. They had a song called Chainsaw Charlie (Murders In The New Morgue) . It had a cover featuring lead singer Blackie Lawless holding a bloody chainsaw while grinning maniacally. I inadvertently left my copy on the kitchen table after buying it, my parents found it and were genuinely concerned that I was converting to Satanism. I mean, I really don't think I need to explain why I loved 'em do I? The truth is of course that I was very late in the day getting into W.A.S.P. and to be honest, the fact that they were still hanging in and scoring chart hits in 1992 even as Smells Like Teen Spirit  was killing '80s metal off at a frightening rate, probably deserves respect. The truth is though that the group would only chal...

  The whiff of hype hangs heavy over the Courettes. They're the sort of band that the NME would have absolutely creamed themselves over in the early noughties, sounding like an almost exact cross between the stripped down garage rock of the White Stripes and the kitschy goth-pop of the Raveonettes. Unfortunately though, my thoughts were that both of the above were somewhat overrated so I guess maybe this album was always going to be at a bit of a disadvantage with me. Let me start by saying it's not a terrible album - the Courettes' schtick is essentially taking the whole '60s classic girl group sound and adding a garage rock aesthetic to it. But unfortunately the execution is...erm, somewhat lacking shall we say. The main issue is just the total lack of originality here. Maybe it's just my age but as someone who's heard this sort of formula done much better by bands ranging from the Bellrays through King Salami and the Cumberland Three to the Hillbilly Moon Exp...

  "Some you win some you lose..."  - One Minute Silence  - Fish Out Of Water As you've probably gathered from reading various SFTJ's in recent months, not to mention the Worst Albums Ever list we did on this site the other month, it's safe to say that I was not a big fan of nu-metal. For the most part, I just found it unlikeable in the extreme - as someone who'd always considered themselves a fan of tunefulness in metal having grown up with the likes of the Wildhearts and Terrorvision , having the pages of Kerrang! suddenly invaded by groups of knuckleheaded fratboys dressing like a bunch of toddlers, peddling a mixture of bad rapping and skin-crawlingly insincere "teenage" angst from a bunch of guys who were clearly much nearer to their thirties than their school years with a decided paucity of actual tunes and decent riffs, it's safe to say that I was pretty damn grateful when the Darkness came along to casually nuke the careers of the likes ...

  When the reformed version of the Professionals poked their heads back up above the parapet with 2017's What In The World  it felt to my ears at least like a solid rather than a spectacular effort despite the good press it got. Perhaps not a massive surprise given that this incarnation of the group was still in its infancy at this point (with Paul Cook and Tom Spencer being the only full time members) and sounded a bit like they were still kind of getting used to each other. However, it had enough promise to suggest that with a bit of stability, better things would come along. Album number two is now here and with the group going into it with an established line-up of bassist Toshi (ex-Hey Hello, Ga*Ga's, Slaves To Gravity and Antiproduct) and former 3 Colours Red/Grand Theft Audio man Chris McCormack on guitar (although the latter has since moved on again), you can tell that the group is growing in confidence and it makes for an enjoyable listen right from when the chugging ...

  Ska is one of those genres that always seems to make a comeback every so often and Essex's Death of Guitar Pop are a band who are rapidly establishing themselves as one of its better new exponents. Regulars on the festival circuit, this is their third album and my initial impression on hearing the bouncy brass of When The Ska Calls  is that they remind me of near neighbours Buster Shuffle (both bands definitely owe a noticeable debt to Madness in their sound) which is no bad thing - certainly Back Of A Lorry  is definitely something I could see BS doing as well. They're a surprisingly versatile bunch though as No 1 In America  sees them dropping the pace by a notch to deliver a tuneful mid-paced ode to the confusion a lot of bands feel on suddenly being packed off on tour to the States while Cinderella's Fella  has some twanging Hank Marvin style guitar which works well within the track. Indeed, the quality remains refreshingly high throughout from the moody T...

  The prospect of a full album from the Supersuckers’ Eddie Spaghetti and Streetwalkin’ Cheetahs frontman Frank Meyer was something I was definitely looking forward to, especially given that the latters' One More Drink  album is definitely going to be right up there when it comes to the Nite Songs Album Of The Year award in a couple of months. Supersuckers albums have been a bit of a mixed bag in recent years but it's safe to say that Eddie and Frank's collaboration here hits all the right buttons. The opening title track and Knock My Teeth Out  are full on high octane rampages which conjure up all the best bits of their day job while the rollocking I Think It Sucks (And I Don't Like It)  is a full on moonshine-addled country staggerer. The sinister  Top Shelf Shame  takes things down a notch with a dark ode to self-loathing although the pair's cover of the Knack's My Sharona  is a bit of a disappointment - it could have seen them taking the song's pow...

  As I mentioned when I did their Sounds From The Junkshop entry a few days ago, the Cosmic Rough Riders were one of the more underrated indie bands of the millennium years and while researching said article, it came to my attention that frontman Daniel Wylie (who fronted the band on their pre-breakthrough albums and their Poptones debut Enjoy The Melodic Sunshine ) has put his own line-up together in recent years and that an album was now out. As you'd maybe expect, Atoms And Energy  is a fairly sedate effort mainly led by Wylie's acoustic guitar although it doesn't stop the odd curveball sneaking in - opener The Bruises And The Blood  starts off as a dark nocturnal lament about domestic violence before suddenly going all Beatles/Beach Boys psychedelic midway through. It's second song, the wistful Heaven's Waiting Room , which mourns the passing of time over a gentle melody, that kind of sums this album up better though as does the Lennonesque God Is Nowhere . Unfo...

"When you're gonna sink so low/That's when you wanna have another go..."  - Slaughter & The Dogs  - You're A Bore I've often said in past editions of both Sounds From The Junkshop and Garbage Days Revisited that the best rock 'n' roll, whether it comes from the midwest diners of the '50s, the garages of the '60s, glam rock, punk rock or anything since, is something deeply primal. It's the sort of thing that makes you want to neck a beer, howl at the moon and headbang along until your neck snaps. And that's, to me, what makes Slaughter & The Dogs arguably the great unsung heroes of '77 punk. The group were there right at the beginning of punk and were straight out of the gate with the Buzzcocks in the first wave of Manchester punk although as their name (half Bowie's Diamond Dogs  and half Mick Ronson's Slaughter On Fifth Avenue ) suggests, their roots actually lay in glam rock a couple of years earlier. Their first s...

  Welcome to the Singles Bar on this cold November night. Glass of mulled something for you? Well, while you mull it over, let's have a look at what's out this month shall we? Well, we kind of had to start with long time Nite Songs faves Evil Scarecrow  who are back with a bang this month complete with half a new line-up and a new single Master Of The Dojo  (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗) from their forthcoming album due to see the light of day in 2022. And it's as brilliantly silly as you'd expect with some Karate Kid  inspired lyrics about kicking people in the balls to win fights over some chugging none-more-metal riffs. Expect to see audiences doing a dance routine to it much the same as they did to Robototron  and Crabulon  in recent years at a venue near you soon.  Bandcamp Link And it isn't getting any less heavy or silly around here as Geordie stoner rock bruisers Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs have teamed up with Lancaster art-rock oddballs The Lovely Eggs ...