OK, so ya remember Punk Rock, right? Not today's Green Day and their offshoots, but the original stuff from the 70's? I love it. I pretty much always have. Then it turned into Hardcore, where everyone was trying to out Sex Pistol everyone else. It kinda lost me there, especially when it morphed into stuff like Straight Edge(sorry, I never had a problem with people being wasted). Well, you may think I'm kind of getting started saying that The Quadrajets are some kind of Hardcore offshoot, and they aren't. They're certainly capable of being that if they wanted, but they seem to understand that there's something to be said about getting back to the old aesthetic of "Fuck you, we play what we want and it just doesn't matter if that's in front of ten people or a 1000."
Man, I love that attitude. I mean, The Quadrajets are Southern. They use three guitars and they use them for making a wall of guitar noise. They do it so well that one of my favorite bands in the whole world, The Dexateens, essentially make their own Quadrajets album once. These guys are loose, they're loud and they must have been one of the most brutal live bands ever. They sing about girls and cars. Considering this came out in 1996,you kinda gotta wonder what they were thinking because like now, this is not the kind of stuff the radio is interested in.
Mostly people don't get interested in stuff like this because it's loud, fast and hard and they don't take themselves too seriously. The kid inside me LOVES that. I mean, a song like The Rosedale Sons of Kong is just the kind of thing that makes me want to drive 100 miles an hour and throw beer bottles at mailboxes as I drive by (not that I would, because that's irresponsible and hopefully no one's done it since 1979). Other songs on here make you want to light fires and piss on cop cars. Songs like Dixie Speedway and Blaster are exactly what you'd think they'd be. They have three goddamned guitars and they don't have two of them doing the same thing all the time, trust me. They use them ALL.
Side two keeps the energy level (and the volume level) all the way up. Stone Cold Kickin' It (At Giza) is pretty much the Dexateens blueprint for playing fast and loud, and this original blueprint is definitely just as good. Then the Quadrajets take Neil Young's Computer Age and turn it into something worthwhile (sorry Neil, I think Trans sucks). Then I think my two favorite songs show up, 40 Wt. Dope and Bad Motherfuckin' Bitch. There's just so much to love about these songs. The riffs are HUGE. The drums are loud and who can't sing along to "my bad motherfuckin' bitch?"
I can. You can, too. I'm telling ya, if you've got a coma going on, and someone plays this stuff for you, there will be a drunken party that ends in a fight on your hospital floor and when they check the security cameras it will be your comatose ass up drinking Pabst Tall Boys and lighting your mattress on fire, then sneaking back to your bed, and probably going back into your coma from being so plowed at your coma party.
I have to highly recommend these guys. maybe I make them sound a little one dimensional, but they really just stay true to their really loud vision. You just can't fault a band for that. You can only admire them.
And turn them up!
2000 Man, your review of this band has just put this album on my "must have" list. Why, you might ask? Because of the "attitude." It brings me back to a time in my life where throwing beer bottles at mailboxes and pissing on cop cars was FUN! It also brings me back to a night when the band I was in at the time were playing a show at a club/concert hall that was, shall we say, not one of our best moments. During the show, I happened to spy a cowboy hat that some previous band had left in a corner of the stage. It could have been left there from the previous night, or it might have been hanging around from when the place opened in '71. Well, things weren't going so well for us that night because the place was, basically, an old hippie hangout and we played loud, fast, rock 'n' roll (some would describe us as "punk" but we really weren't...just loud, fast, rock 'n' roll, a sort of "pre-Replacements" if you will, which, of course, included the consumption of alcohol and speed. LOL!) There were some members of the crowd who were cheering, but there were equal amounts of stoned-out hippies who just kept yelling out for "Free Bird" and crap like that. Anyway, after spying that cowboy hat, I put it on and asked, in my best Southern drawl, "Y'all wanna hear some Lynyrd Skynrd?" LOUD applause followed. I then asked. "Well, how about some Pink Floyd?" Even LOUDER applause followed. So, what did I do? I did just what you think The Quadrajets would do, that's what. I said, "Fuck you, we don't play that shit! We play rock 'n' roll and if you don't like it, you know where the fucking door is!" I then took the cowboy hat off and flung it into the audience and we tore into a version of The New York Dolls' "Personality Crisis." After the show, the owner of the joint was pissed and told us we'd never play there again. However, in the weeks that followed, I was amazed that people who'd been at the show approached, shook my hand, and congratulated me for doing what I did. Then, 2 months later, I got a call from the owner begging us to return! LOL! And THAT is why I'm going to hunt this album down. I LOVE that "fuck you" attitude and, from your review, I think The Quadrajets have it in spades. Thanks for another great review! :-)
ReplyDeleteThat's a great story, CR! If you like Alabama Hip Shake, Pay the Deuce is a monster, too. They may be easier to find on CD's than vinyl, but either way, the Quadrajets bring the fun!
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