Randy
Cheater (G7 Welcoming Committee)
by Scott Hefflon
The unstoppable Randy returns! Now that it’s common knowledge that neo-garage and garage punk (and Swedish rock in general) is The Next Big Thing (breathe a sigh of relief that we can now openly chuckle at the nü metal meatheads and the emo sissy boys as they struggle to grin like fools and shake their buns-of-steel/moping asses to such good-time music), I can finally say I love Randy and not get looked at funny. No, not Randy Newman. No, not Randy Travis. And no, not Randy Rhoads. (Thanks Google!) Randy, as in the Swedish punk rockers with CDs on G7 (distributed in the U.S. through Hopeless cuz they’re savvy fuckers) and Burning Heart (distributed Stateside by a little label called Epitaph which you may’ve heard of).
The three new cuts were recorded in the midst of the band’s sold-out Canadian tour with Propagandhi (which accounts for the vocal cameos). Also included are the lead-off track of the essential The Human Atom Bombs, “Addicts of Communication,” and two cuts from the “I Don’t Need Love” single (not the single or “Rockin’ Pneumonia and the Punk Rock Flu” which are both on The Human Atom Bombs). All decidedly garagey punk, with healthy doses of vintage soul pumped in. Not “soul” like “Soul of VH-1” which, basically, is shitty Top 40 ballads, this is knee-slappin’ beats, howling vocals, and chang-chang guitars. Like energetic Blues Brothers stuff, but on too much coffee and the band’s younger and hipper and sports mop-tops instead of suits and glasses. And there are no horn or sax players. The Swedes know how to rock (The Hellacopters, The Hives, The Flaming Sideburns [I think they’re Finnish, actually]: All distinct, all genre-busters, all pure rock!) and often end up leading the way cuz they’re away from all the trendy commercial hype American kids seem to fall for so easily.
Listen to Randy and see how it’s done. And kids, think back to who’s been trying to convince you these guys rule for the last few years and realize they might have alternate sources to great underground music that make Rolling Stone and MTV even more obsolete.
(www.g7welcomingcommittee.com)
