Gotohells

Rock’n’Roll in America (Vagrant)
by Scott Hefflon

It’s hard to write good rock’n’roll… If ya gotta try, yer doin’ something wrong, and if ya just let it fly, some of the time it clunks like yer jaw did the first time you snuck into a strip joint. Rock is supposed to come from the gut, and as we all know, sometimes our guts end up on the floor and we have some ‘splaining (as well as some cleaning up) to do.

Florida’s Gotohells rock with their balls hanging out, slapping you in the face if you get too close, but if yer that close to the stage, chances are you’re a dangerous fucker with yer balls out yourself… While not every powerchord strummed is magic – some’s just downright dull, formulaic latter-day AC/DC – but some tunes’ll get ya speeding tickets, and some are the dark, fat, lily-white underbelly of hard-drinkin’, hard-livin’, rock-hard-die-messy trash anthems ya “sing” while staggering wildly about, damn near getting yer ass kicked or kicked out cuz yer making an ass of yourself in public yet again.

This might be a new singer, I ain’t sure. And maybe some of these songs have powerful messages or whatever, I could care less. All I know’s this 11-song slab is usually full-tilt rock’n’roll like we need more of, and it’ll sit nice in yer heavy rotation pile with early AC/DC, Supersuckers, New Bomb Turks, Black Crowes (when yer feeling mellow and blusy), and whichever of them Nashville Pussy/Glucifer/Hellacopters bands you connect most with.
(2118 Wilshire Blvd. #361 Santa Monica, CA 90403)