Rocket from the Crypt - 1988. The story is a common one. The son of a Portuguese fisherman rediscovers punk rock and rock and roll and moves toTijuana in order to find musicians whose instincts haven't been replaced by the sedate notion of what it takes to be successful in the world of professional music making.
Rocket from the Crypt - 2001. "Rock n roll's ambassadors of goodwill", "The best live band in the world", "The most important band since the Stones", " the top of today's punk hierarchy", "...the hardest working group in America", "the last of the Mohicans"....Ladies and gentlemen, Group Sounds. Rocket from the Crypt's ninth full length album. 16 blasts of some of the most explosive rock n roll ever committed to tape. Once again, give it up for the band....
Feb. 2000 saw Rocket from the Crypt free from their obligations with Interscope Records and without long time drummer Atom, who left the band to pursue other interests. Signing with Vagrant Records in the USA, and later with b-unique records in the UK, the band now had to find a drummer. Enter Mario Rubalcaba. Mario's drumming had single handedly propelled the short life of post hardcore, abstractionist band Clikitat Ikatowi into cult status. On October 31,2000 at 6:14am Mario answered his call as the new drummer for Rocket from the Crypt, and the band has never sounded more alive.
Group Sounds finds Rocket from the Crypt at the peak of their powers. With the future of rock n roll dangling perilously by it's fingertips above the corporate abyss, Rocket from the Crypt divinely interrupt the heinous wail of mass marketed pap with an urgent plea begging you to demand quality in your life. Wake up!
Conceptually, Rocket from the Crypt wanted to make a record that refused to adhere to generic consistency from song to song. Group Sounds is the product of several sessions in their attempt to capture their sound again. In order to abstract the pure and undiluted new Rocket sound, the band built their own studio. Attracted to the immediacy and sonic credibility of simple home recordings, they searched for ways to incorporate this aesthetic within an approach that would also offer clarity. A vision was taking shape. Using a ghetto blaster to record the bass and drums, an auxiliary 8 track tape machine was synchronized to capture the guitars and horns.
The resulting sound was insane and the ground-breaking approach paid off. From there the tapes were taken for producer/mixer Donnell Cameron to make sense of.
Dig "Heart Of A Rat" with it's infectious repetition and summertime appeal. "This Bad Check Is Gonna Stick" invites you to repent now or be steamrolled by the inquisition - a bonafide party jam blowing up dancefloors in a parallel universe. "Spitting" is a streamlined attack that inflicts sharp blows without pain.
Next stop, Memphis, Tennessee to get wicked, letting the thick Memphis air soak into their bones. Walking the sacred ground of Stax, Elvis, and in the footsteps of so many of their heroes inspired homage to the fierce independent spirit of soul expression. "Venom Venom" is pure punk burn, with Apollo 9 and JC2000 taking it in turns to stoke the fire with stabbing counterplay. "S.O.S." invites you to sit in with the band and listen to the air between the instruments.
"Out Of Control" is a compressed missile of rock n roll expressionism. "Carne Voodoo" is a manic caterwaul that celebrates the marriage of lethal guitar hammering and Fela-esque horn syncopation. "Ghost Shark" has the band once again joined by rock n roll legend Jim Dickinson (Rolling Stones, Stax, Big Star, Flat Duo Jets) on piano. Jim plays Jack Nitzsche to Speedo's Lee Hazelwood and everyone descends into a tale of lost sacred ritual. From Memphis it was back to San Diego to join forces with their new drummer.
"White Belt" leaves nothing to the imagination. "Dead Seed" bubbles then screeches until the anvil is dropped. A cyclical, swirling, mass of guitars envelopes into a meaty, pre-hick fixated Byrdsian chime. The chorus drags everything to a climatic crawl like a tug boat dragging it's anchor on the sea floor. "Return of the Liar" is "Back in the USSR" without the chicks and backed by a 60's frat thump. A modern classic in other words. A fuzzed out bass gathers low end steam and builds the pressure.
All cowbell, tom toms and call and response, Rocket don't throw a party and sneak out the back door before it's over. Finally, "Savoir Faire" fries whatever grease is left. The mechanical lurching of the instrumentation mimics the sound of equipment on the verge of malfunction. These are the Group Sounds. The perfect combination of everything you could ever want.
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