DO THE POP….BLAH BLAH BLAH INC.These achingly swank New York Rockers worship at the Alter Of Osterberg, and make no bones about it. “Lost For Life”…”No Values”…”American Seizure”….the old, Iggy-related yuks just never get stale for this die-hard gang of unrepentant Pop-fetishists. Their love of all things Iggy goes much deeper than their Loreal blue/black hair-dye. Iggy’s legacy of wisecrackin’ exhibitionism, high mischief, and remorseless pleasure-seeking left a big green and blue, garish, dragon tattoo on the collective psyche of SOUR JAZZ. Some say they’ve spent the last decade making the records Iggy should have been makin’, himself, instead of trollin’ around the festival circuit, with those rap-metal leeching delinquents, prior to the STOOGES reunion. Many of you might know Sour Jazz guitarist, MISTER Ratboy as the musical muscle behind the much loved, Hollywood cult-band, Motorcycle Boy. OR, perhaps, you remember his cool, early nineties New York punk band, PILLBOX, with Canadian crooner, Chris Barry, formerly of 39 Steps, presently starring in Throbbing Purple. If so, you already know what a rock’n’roll genius the World Famous MR. Ratboy is. He makes it all look so easy, too. Rat is one of the most highly-functional people I’ve ever known, effortlessly generating a million innovative variations on the classic “New Values” theme. Influenced by prog rock, Nick Cave, Lou Reed, Johnny Thunders, and the Doors, his solo album, “A Gift From Mister Ratboy” was one of the little known masterpieces of the grunge years, he evidences no hang-ups, addictions, or emotional problems…He maintains this band from Japan, where he’s got a straight-job, family to support, and a side project, like all the Dads of Sour Jazz.Remarkably, in this dreary age, of Wall Street greed and Trust Funded, Spin Magazine, Actress/Model gimmick bands, that all drone and brag and drain and bore…where the Big-Media monopolies insist “Rock Is Dead”, SOUR JAZZ somehow, self-finance these startlingly potent, clever, important, and often DANCEABLE, progressive-primitive, rock’n’roll records, year after year. This is house-party music to get drunk and twist to. Mister Ratboy is easily as original, and distinctive as a guitarist, as any legendary stylist you might name, from Kim Salmon, to Brian James. Robbie Krieger, or Andy McCoy. It will be interesting, indeed, to discover how the much-anticipated STOOGES line-up with James Williamson, will stack up next to Sour Jazz.
Bassist, Cowboy, is one of the quickest wits I’ve ever brushed with, a real diamond geezer, as they say in the coffee-shops, who knows absolutely everything there is to know about “real rock’n’roll”, and sometimes moonlights as a member of the NYC incarnation of the Kevin K. Band. Drummer, Splatrick Action, comes to us by way of Martin’s Folly, a top-notch NY band, best known for their Ian Hunter collaboration. One sympathizes most with singer, Lou ‘Mister Popular” Paris, because he’s at quite a disadvantage here: endeavoring to get his own voice across, in the context of a band this IGGY-obsessed. It would appear, however, that Lou’s as Ig-obsessed as the rest, and all his good-natured jokes and lyrical anecdotes do remind you of vintage Iggy. Lou Paris collaborated with Cheetah Chrome, post-Deadboys. He seems perfectly suited to help deliver Ratboy’s rock’n’roll master-plan to the masses. We, here at Veglam, are currently in negotiations with the Acetate Records Press Department, trying to bring you glamsters an in-depth interview with the World Famous Mister Ratboy, in an attempt to finally get some insight into the internet rumors and speculation that Morrissey’s latest single, “I’m Throwing My Arms Around Paris”, is some kind of message to Sour Jazz heart-throb, Lou. He’s currently citing time limitations, and day-job restraints, in a thinly-veiled attempt to dodge the whole “Paris” controversy, but in the meantime, we CAN refer you to the funny, recent interview with Sour Jazz bass-player/Lower Manhattan fashion-plate, Cowboy, over at http://www.punkglobe.comWHY DON’T YOU OWN THIS RECORD, YET?
Sour Jazz make krazy, kustom, kool, throbbing rock’n’roll for real rock’n’rollers, with special guest appearances by Jim Jones and Tracie Hunter! THE PERFECT HOLIDAY GIFT FOR YOUR SULKING, ILL TEMPERED, PUNK SNOB, LOVED ONE, WHO HATES PRETTY MUCH ALL POPULAR MUSIC MADE AFTER 1990. GET THIS NOW!!!
(-Anguish Young)
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