10 years after their album “Amerikka Macht Frei” and after quite a few EPs and singles, UNDERCOVER SLUT are back with a new 10 song album, a new line-up and a new approach to their music. While they were often described as a glam punk version of MARILYN MANSON flirting with WHITE ZOMBIE, they now have broadened their influences. UCS still have this NEWLYDEADS/death rock vibe but they have also incorporated modern electronic sounds in these new songs, sometimes more melodic than before (“F-Bomb”), and mix their industrial metal to American hip-hop (“Insult To Injury”, “Dance Dirt”.) While the MANSON influence can still be heard in “Chloroform Nation” or in “Black Phillip”, it is mixed to electro/techno sounds and rap vocals. It sometimes even gets a bit more experimental with “Vice”, ambient (White Gloves”) and dark hip-hop (“I Lie, U Die”) before ending with a slight DAFT PUNK and gospel note in “Supreme.”
As the apocalyptic collage of the cover (would look great on vinyl!) suggests, this is a good soundtrack for the terrifying times we live in. Lovers gonna love! /Laurent C.
Portland’s punk rock scene seems to be very active nowadays. Preaching a message of equality through satire, The LATTER DAY SKANKS like their punk rock fast and raw as you can hear in opening song “Son Of Perversion (Warren Jeffs.)” These guys probably studied poetry with GG ALLIN (“Piss On Your Face)” and look like a Halloween version of the NEW YORK DOLLS, but songs like “D.D.D.S.G” or the speed metal influenced “Keep It In Ther Family” sound like they must be a lot of fun when played live. The LATTER DAY SKANKS show us that you can talk about serious things while having fun, since their song about street harassment “Cat Callout” features five female vocalists of the Portland scene, which results in a cool girl hooligan chorus!… And well, let’s be honest, trashy punk with 80s hair metal solos and tons of fun can’t be a bad thing, right? /Laurent C.
New horror punk band from Italy bringing us 6 (well, actually 5 since “Awakening Of The Damned” is an intro) songs with heavy WEDNESDAY 13/MURDERDOLLS influences, and an image close to Sweden’s SISTER, something like black metal meets glam on a Halloween night.
The guitar sound in songs like “Scratch Me”, or “Anathema” is definitely metal, but the raw punk energy you can hear in the vocals and backing vocals make these tracks sound quite wild. No time to breathe, “Redemption” could even be a hardcore kid’s favourite, while “Nightstalker” will make headbangers sing along, and “Vengeance” will make you scream like Rob Halford in a slasher film.
I was about to say that I’m looking forward to listening to a full album, but the EP format actually works well with this genre./Laurent C.
A brand new I LOVE RICH record! We’ve been following the band for years now (if you still haven’t heard about them, then you have to know that they are no newcomers, just look at the different chapters of their biography on their website!), and here they are back in 2014 with 8 new tracks introduced with a “Pipeline”-like intro.
No doubt about it, the good old sex, drugs and rock’n’roll still works fine with I LOVE RICH and their KISS guitar riffs and hooks (“(You’re So Hot) I’m Gonna Fuck You With The Lights On”, “If You Don’t Take Your Clothes Off, Tonight’s Gonna Suck ” “Wake Up Let Me Rock You”.) Sometimes it sounds like The DICTATORS are jamming with Ace Frehley, and since early TURBONEGRO fans have been waiting for some new rock’n’roll saviours, they should just listen to “We’re Here To Save Rock and Roll”!
If you need to start this new year with a good dose of fun, fire and larger than life American rock’n’roll, then look no further, you’ll even get a Spanish version of “(You’re So Hot) I’m Gonna Fuck You With The Lights On”, what else do you need?/Laurent C.
In the 80s, metal was quite a codified and uniformized world, but some bands managed to stand out with a strong identity. ROGUE MALE was definitely one of these bands, mixing the new wave of British heavy metal to punk roots wrapped in a post-apocalyptic image. I was around 14 when I got into them. I had their debut album “First Visit”, but seeing them play “Take No Shit” and The SEX PISTOLS’ “Pretty Vacant” on TV show Les Enfants du Rock was the moment that really got me addicted to them. I was into bands like MÖTLEY CRÜE, TWISTED SISTER, W.A.S.P. and SIGUE SIGUE SPUTNIK at that time and was just discovering punk through the PISTOLS, and in a way, ROGUE MALE was mixing the best of all these worlds. More than 25 years later, songs like “Job Centre” or “Progress” -among others- are lyrically still relevant to this day and age. ROGUE MALE survived the computerized apocalypse and are back until the next one at least. Vocalist/guitarist Jim Lyttle answered a few questions…
How did the band start? Did you have an idea about the image/concept before it actually started? Any problem with the name ROGUE MALE (copyrights…)?
Rogue Male started after I had spent some considerable time in other bands, all of which I felt didn’t really have the Killer effect, so I looked for the right musicians to create this thing called Rogue Male, as a punk rocker in circa ’77 the image was more or less a transgression from my original “Punk” image, Never had any probes with the name, “Rogue Male” is a real entity, it was also my identity. lol!
What music did you grow up to? Some of your favourite bands/artists?
I grew up listening to all kinds, mostly blues, however, my biggest influ’s are The Pirates, The Small Faces, The Who, Free, Thin Lizzy, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, The Sex Pistols, these are the bands that made me sit up and take notice and still do.
It was hard to label the band, to put it in a precise category. Did it scare record companies at some point? On the other hand, did it help to get a wider audience?
My thing is versatility, I wanted to be able to swing from all of my influ’s come what may, Record companies haven’t a clue anyway, as I found out lol, and yes I think it did appeal to a wider audience.
ROGUE MALE appeared on French national TV and had a good coverage in the French press. The band was almost introduced as the new SEX PISTOLS! How did that happen? Did you have good connections here?
Apart from the fact that we had just toured France and went down a storm, we also picked up an award for Top International New Artist at around that time so all these things fell into place at the right time I guess. The Sex Pistols thing came about I think because we had a write up in which it described us as the most dangerous band since the Sex Pistols, we also did the Pretty Vacant cover for the show lol, one of my favorite songs of all time.
What were your favourite venues to play in those days? Best shows to you? Worst ones?
The Marquee in London was always a favorite of ours, also Hammy Odeon, The Ulster Hall In Belfast was a cracker to do, my home town of course, many great venues throughout England, to numerous to mention, the worst venues, well there was plenty of them, Bogies in Cardiff, Wales comes to mind, being ridiculously small, could not swing a mouse, never mind a cat lol
What bigger bands did you open for in those days? Who were the coolest? The not so cool ones?
We opened for Motorhead, MSG, Anti Nowhere League,Girlschool, to name a few, The Coolest was Girlschool, I think it was Kim’s black fishnets that did it lol, the totally uncool was MSG, complete WANKER lol, long story short, Micheal insisted that I didn’t move out of a 2ft duct tape square on the stage floor that he had placed there for me, I told him that I had no control from the neck down when onstage lol so go fuck yourself, we blew them away anyway, lol fuckin cheesy wimpos.
Main differences between “First Visit” and “Animal Man” to you? I’ve heard that you weren’t satisfied with the mix of “Animal Man”?
If you hear us playing these songs live from both these albums, no diff, however the recorded difference is that The First Album cost £10,000 and we were in control, the second cost £80,000, and the record company was in control, like I said before, they have not got a clue, anyway eventually our mix of that record is the one that was released in the end, Elektra re-mixed it again at a cost of £20,000, and to be honest it was SHITE, thats when we made up our minds to get rid, they were not acting in our best interest and never would. They think when they sign you up to a record deal, that they own you, doh!
How did you meet Danny Fury who later joined the LORDS OF THE NEW CHURCH?
I met Danny Fury after he came for an audition with Rogue Male, after he got the job, I suggested he change his name to FURY because that suited the band better, his real name Fleury doesn’t exactly conjure up enough mystic, I’m sure Danny would agree, lol, we are still best buddies tho lol
What was the biggest problem that led to the band’s split? The record label or the management?
Problem was for us that our manager also owned the record company, he also set up a publishing company in between me and The real Publishing company Zomba, hence conflict of interest right across the board, again not acting in our best interest, doh!
If you could change one thing from these days, what would it be?
If I’d known then what I know now, the whole deal would have been different, I would have licensed my material to them rather than actually signing to them, and the manager would have been given 20% from the net, not 33and a 3rd from the gross. doh!
Did you ever think about starting the band again with new members in those days? Or did you try and start a new band after ROGUE MALE’ split?
Rogue Male was such a shit hot band that it was very difficult for me to start again with others, I did try but the magic was just not there, so I led it to rest, longer than I ever anticipated mind you, but that’s another story.
What did you do before giving ROGUE MALE a new birth in 2007? Was it something you were thinking about long before happened?
It was always my intention to get RM back together, sooner rather than later, alas the factors all have to fall into place, that silly thing called “life” gets in the fuckin way a lot, lol but hey we are here now and raring to go full throttle.
You released an album (“Nail It”) in 2009. How are things for ROGUE MALE since then?
At the moment we are in rehearsals and have a new album written and ready to record, we have had set back after set with unreliable personnel over the last year or so, but we shall motor on undeterred in our quest to get Rogue Male back on top. It’s difficult trying to get out there again, the music biz has become an even bigger fiasco than it ever was, but the music and the fans keep it alive for me, so its on forward go, I’m overwhelmed at the response we have had recently and we are determined to give our fans every ounce of ROGUE MALE.
Italian glam metal horror junkies SUPERHORRORFUCK have released this new EP on December 21st 2012 so that they can rise from the dead and promote it in a post-apocalyptic world. Nothing really changed since that date, but that sure won’t stop the band to spread their Grand Guignol disease.
4 songs that are still heavily influenced by WEDNESDAY 13 and The FRANKENSTEIN DRAG QUEENS FROM PLANET 13, but that also show a new interesting side in “Voodoo Holiday” where surf-rock guitars meet horns similar to those in RIVER CITY REBELS for instance. “Death Become US” and “Ante-Mortem Pictures” are heavier and closer to the band’s previous released, but there’s also a bit of punk in those zombies’ colourful blood (“Dawn At The Graveyard”) that will help you to sing along. Be warned!/Laurent C.
Punk shock rockers REBEL REBEL started to terrorize their homeland back in 1990… After all this time, the terror show had to be exported to Europe and landed in the country of Guillotine, France. I was lucky to be part of this wild and chaotic ceremony in 2005 in Paris. Of course, the visual aspect is missing on CD but you’ll find all the raw energy and destructive craziness of that night on this live album. REBEL REBEL has never been a typical Sunset Strip band, their music and attitude has more to do with The STOOGES, The PLASMATICS and SIGUE SIGUE SPUTNIK. This SPUTNIK influence is even more obvious on the studio tracks/ads (there’s even a Sputnik 2 Martin Degville ad) that have been added at the end of the CD. “Harness All The Energy” is now of one of my favourite REBEL REBEL song!… French kids have fallen for them, the rest of the world will follow!/Laurent C.
Veglam 