Mad For The Racket

The Racketeers (Muscletone)
by Jon Sarre

I’m sure we can all start off and agree that this is a really stupid name (actually I kept thinkin’ they were The Racketeers and the record was called Mad For The Racket, but it’s the other way around). That outta the way, ya shouldn’t let this un totally get away from ya cuz this is the legendary Brother Wayne Kramer of MC5 fame and The Damned’s Brian James along with a little help from friends like The Police’s Stewart Copeland, Guns N’ Roses’ Duff McKagan, and Blondie’s Clem Burke.

Sure, this record suffers from some of the usual supergroup problems (y’know, alla that ego stuff), but as far as recent Wayne Kramer stuff goes, it looks as if he’s regained a sense of direction that was lacking on previous releases. He trades off vocals with James pretty much track for track, and they rock it out old-dude steady, singin’ ’bout dirty streets (“Trouble Bones”), lowlife types (“Czar of Poisonville”), gang shoot kick drug epics (“Prisoner of Hope”), uh, war correspondents (“Christina”), and back when poet-outlaw fatalism was the only thing ya had goin’ for ya and you were prepared (and mebbe expectin’) to have it all over by 22 (at least that’s what I think of when I hear The Damned’s “I Fall,” lovingly covered here). Twenty-five years later, yer still standing and thinkin’ rock can be as vital as whatever is or isn’t coursing thru yer veins or just to remind people yer still here, standing, tall or otherwise.
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