Three from Drug Front Records - featuring Born Loose, Two Man Advantage, and The Stags

I'm seriously behind in my Rippling, especially new releases. So what better way to start the year off with three new killers from Brooklyn's Drug Front Records.

Born Loose - s/t

Born Loose is a 4 piece firecracker fronted by ex Candy Snatcher Larry May. I had the pleasure of getting my ears blown out by them over the summer and was really looking forward to this album. Fans of the Lazy Cowgirls will go for this band big time. Every song rocks hard and most of them are fast. Even the slower ones like "China Bus Express" and "Folds Of The Flesh" still rock with a strong New York Dolls influence. With a band name like Born Loose it's obvious that the Dolls & the Heartbreakers are a huge influence. My personal faves are the ones that have a lot of screaming like "Heart Attack" and "Step Up To The Plate (Be A Runaway)." The rude lyrics of "Sugar Pussy" show a low maturity level that I also approve of. The rhythm section of Shane Konen (bass) and Eric Robel (drums) are extremely tight and make fiery guitarist Suke work even harder. If you have a large collection of Sympathy For The Record Industry 7" singles that you've played to death, here's your new favorite band. Vinyl comes with a lyric sheet and a copy of the CD as a bonus.

http://www.facebook.com/bornloose?fref=ts

"Step Up To The Plate (Be A Runaway)" live




Two Man Advantage - Dynasty

Even though upstate NY is a lot closer to Canada, Long Island is the butt of a lot of jokes in NYC. There are also a lot of hockey fans on Long Island. Two Man Advantage have been blasting out their brand of beer & hockey fueled punk for well over a decade. This is what happens when you crank Poison Idea tapes while there's an Islanders game on TV. NoMeansNo have the Hanson Brothers as an outlet for their hockey fixation but Two Man ups the insanity level by a few notches. Their singer dresses up like the guy from Piledriver, another great Canadian export. None of this would matter if the jams weren't solid. Dynasty is 12 kick ass punk songs with great lyrics. Opener "Rookie Season" has great Zep inspired lyrics like "it's been a long time since I scored a goal." Their live shows are notoriously rowdy and they do a good job of capturing that on this album. The music is chaotic but tight and there's lots of miscellaneous screaming. Do you really need me to explain to you what songs like "Drink The Bar Dry," "When The Ice Melts Away" and "Hosers Sing The Blues" are about? My copy came in white splattered vinyl and has a full color SOD inspired collage on the inner sleeve, CD also included.

http://www.facebook.com/TwoManAdvantagePunk

Two Man Advantage - full live show February 2012





The Stags - s/t 7" EP

This 4 track EP is short, fast and to the point. Jim sings and is backed up by a kick ass three piece female band. Two minute songs are bashed out economically with very animated lyrics. The female backing vox are great. "Rock Hotel" doesn't seem to be about any of the metal or hardcore shows I saw promoted by Chris Williamson's Rock Hotel, but that's OK. "Moving On" is not a cover of Bad Co.'s "Movin' On" but that's OK, too. It comes in a nice sleeve on white vinyl. There's a download card that gets you 3 more jams.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Stags/249104148473829

The Stags live February 2012




Another good batch of releases from Drug Front. While lots of labels are cutting corners or putting out digital only releases, label head Dean Rispler seems hell-bent on overstock. Rumor has it he auctioned off some of his rare Americade test pressings to fund his label. Go to his website and do some shopping.

--Woody

http://drugfrontrecords.com

Drug Front Records - featuring Runny, 10 Cent Fuck Flicks, Mighty Fine, and The Naked Heroes

Anyone who mails me a box full of vinyl deserves to get their stuff reviewed. That's exactly what Drug Front Records did and that's what I'm going to do. Drug Front is a Brooklyn based record label run by musician Dean Rispler, current bassist for the new version of The Dictators called Manitoba. Ross The Boss is playing guitar for them, that's all you need to know. Dean's a supporter and documenter of scuzzy bands operating in the New York City area and here's the run down of what was inside the box he spent $3.31 on postage.

Does the expression "saving the best for last" mean that the first is the worst?

First up is the new 7" single from the band Runny titled "The Legendary Runny E.P." For decades I've been described as immature, vulgar, unpleasant and so on but Runny vocalist Lemon Cookie far surpasses me in all of these categories and many other unsavory qualities. He's been fronting Runny since 2005 and shows no signs of growing up in any way, shape or form. This 4 song single is really messed up, and on colored wax to boot. Musically, it's great punk rock. The band is tight with axe riffery from Cupcake and a rocking rhythm section of Cracker Dap on bass and drummer Colonel Cream (those last 2 also play in a great band called The Whores). Lemon Cookie's voice is a hardcore bark reminiscent of Roger Miret's early Agnostic Front work. But the lyrics! Oh my. They're something like if The Mentors were sexually confused and kept a blog diary. Opening song "Sucking On The Wrong Dick" lets you know you're in for a rough couple of minutes. Amazingly, it gets even more depraved with "Way Up Inside." These are songs so nuts you have to hear them to believe it. I had to check if side two's "Punish Me" was a GG Allin cover. It's not. The whole thing wraps up with some sort of techno remix thingy called "All The Living Things You Gave Me Are Dead" that I didn't finish listening to.

A classy band called the 10 Cent Fuck Flicks also gets the colored 7" single treatment subtitled "8 Songs About Drugs And Sex." This is raw, dirty, fast punk for fans of The Dwarves and The Lazy Cowgirls. The lyrics really are about sex and/or drugs and each song flies by in about 2 minutes. The vinyl comes with a download card with a bonus song that I haven't had a chance to check out yet. I have a good feeling it's more of the same, meaning it kicks ass. The instrumental "Pussy Flavored Ice Cream" seems to borrow a riff from Exciter's killer jam "Feel The Knife." Even if it doesn't, I'm going to pretend it does. I bet these guys put on a raucous show and I hope they play louder than hell.

The band Mighty Fine must have more commercial potential since Drug Front released a full length 12" LP called Get Up To Get Down and threw in a CD rather than a download card (side one is Get Up, side two is Get Down). Mighty Fine's another band that's been around for a long time but this is my first real chance hearing them. They're often compared to the Afghan Whigs, a band I really can't stand, but I won't hold that against them. Sure enough, they do sound a lot like them and even have Whigs frontman Greg Dulli guest on one song. Mick Collins of The Dirtbombs also makes a cameo. Mighty Fine definitely bear the influence of both their guest artists but bring enough of their own booze to the party to keep it interesting. Vocals sometimes zoom into Jagger-esque falsetto more than I'd like but otherwise the singer's voice is powerful and the band gives him good punk/soul backing. I accidentally had my turntable on 45 when I put the song "Danger" on and it sounded a lot like Ace Frehley's version of "New York Groove." At regular speed it was more "Superfly." Real cool with me either ways. Limited to 500 vinyl copies, this one mighty actually sell out.

The Naked Heroes have returned with their second album titled Demon The Whiskey Down. The front cover art is great. Dean is a HUGE fan of the band Autograph, I don't know how he was able to afford the guy who did the covers to Sign In Please and That's The Stuff. Doesn't matter, someone in Williamsburg no doubt is already rocking this cover on the back of a too small denim vest. Even better is the awesome comic book included inside the vinyl (CD comes with the wax, too). An honest to goodness 12 page comic book! Great story and illustrations by Benjamin Marra. I wouldn't be surprised if this packaging concept was something Dean forced on the band because of his love of Raging Slab's Assmaster LP/comic. How's the music? Like I mentioned in the review of their debut album 99 Diamond, I was all set not to like this band due to the obvious White Stripes connotations (male singer/guitarist, female drummer) but they're too damn fun to hate on. They have a great sense of humor and wrote a song called "Pickin' Up A Dime." Drug Front royalties must be pretty good because all I can afford these days is a tre bag. They also have a real funny one called "Heavy Metal Shoeshine" that bears absolutely no resemblance to Saxon's "Heavy Metal Thunder." The kids in Greenpoint wouldn't get it and wouldn't like it anyway. The title track is real good, for real. Hope to see these guys live one day in their element but I might need a fake ID to shave a decade or two off my real age.






So there you have it. Four bands all working hard to get their kicks. Dean is to be commended for dumping so much money into this nonsense. Vinyl's expensive and most of this stuff can't be found in stores so feel free to send some of your disposable income his way.

--Woody

The Live Ones - Yer Quite Welcome

I unearthed my battered copy of Tapping The Source by the Lazy Cowgirls recently and then the very next day this new LP by Brooklyn’s Live Ones shows up. Before even hearing a note of the Live Ones, I knew the similarities were pretty obvious. Both albums have black and white no frills covers and contain high energy punk influenced rock & roll. Yer Quite Welcome’s album cover is an action shot of the band playing at NYC’s notorious dirtbag rock bar the Ding Dong Lounge. I can tell because the Ding Dong has an awesome Motorhead poster for a show they played at the Calderone Theater on Long Island in 1983. The Rods and Virgin Steele opened (legend has it V.Steele got booed off the stage). The poster’s covered up by their logo but is there for you to drool over on the back cover.

Yer Quite Welcome really reminds me of my old favorite Cowgirls album but also of Australian maniacs like Cosmic Psychos or even the Hard-Ons. Album opener “Disowned” gives you everything you need to know about this band - fast, pissed off punk (but not hardcore) played by 3 gruel dudes old enough to know better but too tired to care. Other side one highlights includes “Lifeline,” which starts off with an almost Blackfoot feel before veering into Rolling Stones territory and the Johnny Thunders “So Alone” influenced song “Haunted.” They even have a song called “We’ll Take You Higher” that sounds like something the Brought Low would write but, unfortunately, there’s no mention of weeed in the lyrics.

Side 2 has a great song called “Writing’s On The Wall” that is vintage 1974 Kiss. “We’re The Ones” jumps ahead a few years to 1977 and brings to mind the Dead Boys classic “Caught With The Meat In Your Mouth.” “Get Up & Move” is a nice autobiographical number that mentions that they got their start at the Charleston, one of Brooklyn’s dumpiest bars to play in, as well as getting shut down by the cops in Greenpoint. These are all topics near and dear to my heart.

You can’t go wrong with this one. It’s brought to you by Drug Front Records, a new label run New York’s #1 Joe Lynn Turner fan Dean Rispler. But don’t hold that against him. Dean’s worked with some fine bands like the Candy Snatchers and Bad Wizard and is foolish enough with his money to release this on LP and CD. If you like it raw, loud and snotty check out the Live Ones.


--Woody



Listen and Buy here: The Live Ones





Drug Front Records