He's been a hard luck legend of the Canadian underground for 40 years now, and while it's something of a surprise this album exists at all I can't say it's any surprise that it's so effin' excellent.
The echoed drums, baritone sax deep in the mix & girl group melodies wed Spector's Wall of Sound with the raggedy looseness of 60s garage punk. A triumph all around.
There's a layer of melancholy lying just underneath the driving guitar buzz that lends these highly melodic tunes an impressive staying power. Technically only an EP, but match it with the previous year's "The Piss, The Perfume" and you've got an album for the ages.
An
album that not only screams New York, but also offers - in its barrage
of hard rock hooks - testament to the reasons why Conte was first choice
as Johnny Thunders' fill-in in the reformed New York Dolls.
Precociously talented at such a young age, Jelani Aryeh grabs pieces from pop, soul, R&B, and indie and puts them together in refreshingly original ways.
There are layers of social, political, and lyrical reasons to appreciate this album, but none of that would matter much if the music (a quantum leap forward for both ska-punk and pop-punk) didn't pack such a punch.
While Amy Taylor still doesn't exactly sing, she chants and rants with a charisma that sits perfectly amid the band's ACDC-meets-Radio Birdman attack. And while it's understandable she gets tagged as a female Iggy Pop, it's also evident that she's powered by a more righteous anger than any male counterpart might muster.
Every now and then I'll find a small miracle - in this case, garage punk with an infectious 50s sock hop sensibility in its melodic construction - that forces me to champion the band as an underdog. Will we ever hear from them again? Who knows. In the meantime, we've got "Wannabe."
A declarative reminder this kind of music is far too scarce. Not metal, not punk, not indie or alternative - no need for a hyphenate at all - just melodic, aggressive, proudly electric rock that refuses to leave my player.
Reaches back to their first 2 albums (the pedal steel of "Break Up Break Down" and the garage punk R&B of "Time Bomb High School") and creates what might be their crowning achievement.
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