They call themselves a punk/rock band from Boston and feature Andre Dedousis on bass, Jeff Demas on guitar and Steve Knowles on drums. Their homemade disc, “A Second Take Demo” I picked up at the Cantab downstairs, Club Bohemia, a month or so ago and you can get it here.
Song 1 opens with a pounding, explosive, riff-laden, anger-filled masterpiece of a tune, “Origins,” with a vocalist (guitarist Jeff Demas) who gets the Jack Ely of the Kingsmen (“Louie ,Louie”) award for most indecipherable lyrics on a current disc. The title will get into your head with real staying power, an hour after you left it spinning in the car CD player. As good a song for driving on Route 93 or 128 since Deep Purple’s “Highway Star.”
“Gunslinger” starts with a blues-laced riff borrowed from Golden Earring’s “Radar Love” like a country/western/rock early Gram Parsons/Byrds motif sing/speak essay that evolves into pure alternative. The hook of “Turn you inside out” repeats, both songs tight and smart.
“Manic” opens with explosive guitar bends from the early era of Alice cooper, taking an about face into a dramatic speadfreak dance step with “manic” guitars (and I wrote that before finding out the song was called “Manic” – the CD not having any song titles but directing the listener to the web) and the vocalist Demas engaging in his most determined proclamations.Released March 14, 2014 the music was recorded and mixed by Jeff Bousquet who does a fine job getting the high volume nuances into each track with clarity.
This is a very fun record “Greenline” is interesting, nice grooving track, with a most intelligent line “Left my bike at home/’cause I’d like to stay alive/I’m still underground and waiting for the Greenline.The closer, “Miles Away” is my favorite along with song 1, “Origins” (they’re both extraordinary) with a nice chunky riff that opens up this streamlined punctuation with a vague point of view, the clarity coming in with the chorus.Great stuff. Wonder what they are like live?
Songs: Origins, Gunslinger, Manic, Green Line, Miles Away
Joe Viglione is the Chief Film Critic at TMRZoo.com. He has written thousands of reviews and biographies for AllMovie.com, Allmusic.com, Gatehouse Media, Al Aronowitz’s The Blacklisted Journal, and a variety of other media outlets. Joe also produces and hosts Visual Radio, a seventeen year old variety show on cable TV which has interviewed Jodie Foster, director/screenwriter David Koepp, Michael Moore, John Cena, comics/actors Margaret Cho, Gilbert Gottfried, Gallagher, musicians Mark Farner and Don Brewer of Grand Funk Railroad, Ian Hunter of Mott The Hoople, Ray Manzarek, John Densmore, Felix Cavaliere of The Rascals, political commentator Bill Press and hundreds of other personalities.
