Rocket From the Crypt

Group Sounds (Vagrant)
by Jon Sarre

For consistency’s sake, if nothin’ else, Rocket From the Crypt is onea the best bands lurkin’ out there. They write good press releases, too, but ya can’t just go pick those things up, I think ya gotta be on some kinda list. You can pick the CD up tho’, and ya probably should too, ‘specially if ya like stuff like no bullshit rock’n’roll, only with more grandiose concepts (if ya consider horns and hand-clappin’ to be either grandiose or concepts), but it’s those very small, plainly-obvious nuances that differentiates ’em from other best-of-the-bunchers like the New Bomb Turks, the Neckbones, or Scared of Chaka. Or, to argue in the alternative like they teach me in lawyer school, RFTC is on the Clash/Stones sorta continuum, ‘cept that there’s much less kitchensinkness and they play much faster than those old guys.

They can best be compared to, if ya just wanna play it safe, RFTC! This is what, record seven? Year thirteen? Most people don’t get that far, never mind stay good! Fuck, these clowns are everything a stupid punk rock band aspires to be, unless that stupid punk rock band is onea those humorless “credibility” deals (a really stupid punk rock band). I figger Rocket From the Crypt doesn’t really worry about shit like that, which is why they’re still around. That and they’ve probably got bridges left to burn.
(2118 Wilshire Blvd. #361 Santa Monica, CA 90403)