Musician (SECOND RATE, HAWAII SAMURAI, BLACK ZOMBIE PROCESSION, DEMON VENDETTA, DUMBELL, SIMON CHAINSAW and many more!) and writer (Tons of fanzines and megazines (!) New Noise magazine, a book about French 80s thrash metal and one about French punk rock legendary band BURNING HEADS, etc.), Nasty Samy has been very busy these last 25 years and although he started thinking about recording a solo album years ago, the last two years weren’t really the best ones to release an album… Here it is now! This album is actually a cover album featuring a few friends and people Sam met on the road. The CD comes out with a great looking 48 page black and white booklet in which Sam tells us about each song and the reasons why he chose them among others. Nostalgia is central here but it never gets pathetic. After an intro sample of “Le Feu Follet” (Louis Malle) on a music compsed by long time friend Sylvain Bombled (SECOND RATE, MAYERLING…) you get to hear a power rock version of GUN CLUB‘s classic “Sex Beat” with Paul Smith (DUMBELL) on vocals just before “Creepy Kackalope Eye” (SUPERSUCKERS) with Patrice Fillol (NEDGEVA) on vocals. If anybody has told me about a cover album by Nasty Samy, I would have bet on a DRAMARAMA song. He chose “Work For Food” with pop punk vocals by Forest Pooky, and of course I would also have bet on MORRISSEY too since Sam is actually responsible for making me like the Moz. The chosen one here is “The Last Of The Famous International Playboys” with Francis Altrach (NOTHING MORE) doing a very good job singing it. The LEMONHEADS‘ “Rudderless” featuring Mike Begnis (SHOOT THE SINGERS) will take you straight back to the 90s and The HARD-ONS “I do, I do, I do” is one of my favourite tunes on here. Singer Wattie Delai (DEAD END) is perfect on this one. My other favourite on here is definitely SAMHAIN‘s “To Walk The Night” on which Erin Sims’ voice almost sounds like SIOUXSIE‘s. Then you get back to power rock with “The Last Goodbye” (AGENT ORANGE) featuring Simon Chainsaw on vocals and grungy powerpop with TUMBLEWEED‘s “Hang Around” with Anne Durand on vocal duties. You’ll also get some American indie punk moments with “You Fight Like A Little Girl” (PEGBOY – Paul Smith on vocals again) and “Oyster” (JAWBREAKER) with Rom Tom Cat on vocals. One of the most surprising choices on this album has to be “Shine On”, the HOUSE OF LOVE mega hit here sung with style by Ravi (BURNING HEADS.) Although Sam is a true metalhead at heart, he didn’t include any metal songs and decided to give a rock/powerpop colour to this album. On the other hand, he’s paying tribute to skate/pop punk with a DAG NASTY cover (“S.F.S”)! The record ends with a bang with an excellent THERAPY? Cover (“Nausea”) with great powerful vocals by Sylvain Bombled and a surf rock rendition of JOY DIVISION‘s classic “Transmission”. Whether you like these covers or not, you can only admit that this is a very good paylist and “a postcard sent from the past with a few comforting words written on the back…”. /Laurent C.
Veglam 