The Dracu-Las
"I'm Blue" b/w "Time is a Maze" single
(Outro Records)
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The Dracu-las succeed splendidly at a formidable task; that being, not only reiterating 1961 Ikettes sweet meat, but doing so with all the shimmy dignity it merits. Silk-swathed voluptuousness undulates, fingers pop, and melodies usher toward rapture. Harmonies that outspread with deliciousness enjoy the complement of reservedly luscious instrumentation.
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Go-Go Killers
Baddest Asset - 1st 10 Years of Trash
(Self-issued)
The Go-Go Killers claim gestation on "Planet Fuck." All who've lost what bent minds they had, happily salute. Hearing the venomous audio-violence these Men of Malevolence untether, none would mount naysaying. The effect is one of haunted castles with walloping ear-blastation capacity. Frontmonster/lyricist Alabama Sharp evokes the glottal-eruptive poltergiests of Hasil and Lux, emitting occasional shriek-whoops that emanate from unexplored eeriness. The Go-Go Killers probably scare the shit out of front row suds guzzlers. Not even Transylvanian travel agents can get you to Planet Fuck. But this outer-fringe-of-evil-madness compendium is the next best item.
Recommended: "I Am a Spider," "Woke Up Bad," "Jungle Fever," "You Look Like You Need to Screw," "Caught a Demon Last Night," "I-565," "Werewolves in Heels," "Yeti in a Girls Dormitory," "Mad Dog," "I Got the Bug," "Fucked-Up Dead Guy"
Videos: live (37:16, 2025) "I Am a Spider" (official video) "Werewolves in Heels"
Mad Marge
Dead and Gone
(Self-issued)
"Every shadow knows my name!," Marge pronounces in "Dancing in the Dark." No matter that the track occupies penultimate location. It embodies all the PsychoPunk stridency that abounded in preceding missives. The power of angry Rock'n'Roll reduces surrounding circumstances to rubble. For years, Marge headed the Stonecutters. Together, she and they hacked jagged orbits though fearsome ranges. Whether personnel has been altered, or only billing changed, nitro-laced spectacle remains the attraction.
At the moment, Dead and Gone exists exclusively in digital format. Vinyl incarnations are planned for approaching days.
Recommended: "The Other Mother," "Most Days," "First Bite," "Love and Pain," "Already Dead," "Dancing in the Dark," "Issues"
Videos: "The Other Mother" (live) "Love and Pain" (live) "Already Dead"
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Alan Vega
Live at Rockpalast 1982 CD + DVD
(Play Loud! Productions)
The vocal half of infamous 1970s NYC exotic Suicide team, the late Alan was truly a unique specimen: A sequins-opulent, street-corner necromancer whose outlaw persona featured alternating yowls and hisses, abruptly punctuated by grand mal epileptic haloos and shrieks that rang into dimensions uncharted.
Some audience members were driven into boulevards by his hyperventilated expostulations, and Suicide partner Martin Rev's synth/rhythm box bubblings. But others found strange merit, in times otherwise made great by Manitoba, Thunders, Bators, and the Ramones bunch.
The beyond-all-reasonable-margins Vega/Rev duo threw synthesized startlingness, Bubblegum ditties, and crackling airs that had survived Brillo-Pad roughing ups into some oddball blender, festooning the product with one-foot-dangling-over-the-palisade poetry. Even now, few could probably listen to "Frankie Teardrop" in its entirety. (And yes, that's a challenge.)
Of course, Alan's between-lyric grunts and whoops had not birthed themselves; Rockabilly progenitors both famed and obscure had imprinted his manic gesticulations. That heritage inspired Alan's subsequent endeavors to weave the Rebel genre into efforts tottering on modern music's precipice. His later reinvention of Gene's "Be Bop A Lula," based around the Peter Gunn theme (and heard, here), evidenced as much.
In the post-Suicide era, Alan's gymnastic larnyx remained his trademark. And that was full-on good. Instrumentation displayed on Live at Rockpalast 1982 is a bit more involved than Martin's one-man voltaged razzmatazz. The more orthodox guitar/bass/drums unit at Alan's elbow had motored his Collision Drive LP a year previous. (It saw release on both the Celluloid and Vogue labels.)
Songs captured here are more than mere aural compositions; they are experiential. Vega's spotlit presentations were happenings, and his shambolic wavings signaled offbeat shamanic ritualism. As best as can be restrained within vinyl grooves, tracks portray a possessed performer in the happy grip of a cool mesmerism which only the committed know.
All that having been said...
Sound quality isn't always optimal. Distortion of a sort not planned makes its appearance. But it isn't nearly sufficient to sabotage listening gladness, and besides, such is sometimes to be anticipated with in-concert recordings. (It does lend an I-am-there worth, though you'll have to imagine jostling fans all around.) Included with this CD is a DVD containing 2002 documentary "Alan Vega: Collision Drive."
Unique specimen Vega may have split gig time between hip-bopping evocations and victorious battles with unseen antagonists from curious realms. We'll never know...
Recommended: "Magdalena," "Goodbye Baby," "Jukebox Babe," "Je T'Adore," "Outlaw," "Be Bop A Lula"
Videos: "Magdelena/Goodbye Darling/Jukebox Babe/Be Bop A Lula/ Sexy" (abbreviated Rockpalast live clips) "Jukebox Babe"
The Psychodelics
"Shut Up and Drive" single
(Psychodelic Records)
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The accompanying video depicts bands' real-life, pre-gig activities: Driving concrete ribbons that criss-cross our land, and unloading cumbersome amps and gear, are occupational hardships not glimpsed by bar patrons. (The present writer knows well the heft of a Marshall speaker cabinet at 3AM.) Behind all that - and countless practice hours, plus abundant out-of-pocket payouts - a hell of a lot of appreciation is owed bands.
Especially when the songs are this bludgeoning.
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