U.S. Bombs

Never Mind The Open Minds… (Alive)
by Jon Sarre

Located in the lower left-hand corner of this CD, right above the Alive Records logo, are the words “Dedicated to the Memory Of Sid Vicious.” That’s there cos Sid’s the epitome of punk rock cos he had cool hair and a leather jacket and died young and covered “My Way” and shot up the audience in the movie and shot up himself in real life and couldn’t play a fucking note and stabbed his girlfriend and wasn’t coherent enough to know where he was most of the time. In short, Sidney was a larger-than-life legendary martyr whose passing we should all mourn as we cry in our beers and warble along with U.S. Bombs as they eulogize a dumb guy who totally believed in his own media image with their tender tribute, “The Ballad of Sid.”

Sincerity reigns as the Ex-Pistol Who Couldn’t Make the Reunion is remembered and the song is actually a ballad ! U.S. Bombs sorta mumble-repeat the line “Sidney John Beverley Simon Ritchie” to a quasi-acoustic accompaniment and it’s all very heartfelt.

Less misty-eyed is the anti-Johnny Rotten/Lydon rant “Neverland” where the once anti-Christ is damned as a “Liar/Liar/Liar” (no “pants on fire”?). Steve Jones and the “Filthy Lucre” tour are targeted on “Slow Down” for reasons pertaining to the stunning realization that the Sex Pistols really don’t give two shits about punk rock ,but old Sid’s okay cos his vital signs petered out sometime during the Carter Administration.

It’s still beyond me why anyone would really get pissed off just cos the Pistols soaked gullible retards for retirement cash and I definitely don’t see why anyone would find it important enough to devote their Sid Vicious-like songwriting talents to complaining about it. Fuck, look at a picture of U.S. Bombs and you’ll see five guys in their mid-thirties who dress like they’re roadies for the Clash right around Combat Rock – I mean, at their ages shouldn’t they know fucking better? They didn’t notice that Lydon was a sellout weasel before this? Anyone ever hear of P.i.L.?

I don’t know about you, but I hope there’s a full-length follow up to Never Mind the Open Minds in the works. I can envision the song titles: “I Thought the Twentieth Last Ever Ramones Show Was Better Than the Twenty-Fifth Last Ever Ramones Show,” “If Iggy Had Died Young (He Wouldn’t Be Such A Fag Today),” and, of course, “The Ballad of G.G. Allin.”