Rock City Crimewave

Sealed with a Curse (Pig Pile)
by Scott Hefflon

You’d never know from listening to Sealed With a Curse, but Rock City Crimewave are one of the better hard rock bands in Boston, and we’ve got no shortage of ’em, hoss. Lamont, Scissorfight, Quintaine Americana, Roadsaw, Random Road Mother/Fast Actin’ Fuses, and Cracktorch – bunched panties over my drunken comments aside – and RCC are all peers, and most of ’em are my drinkin’ buddies. I guess I could recommend buying Sealed With a Curse so you can hear the basics of the songs, get to know them, then go see them live where they don’t sound all muffled’n’shit, but I can’t really back this slab, cuz it sounds pretty bad. And seeing as their live shows are so bright (sonically, I mean. Musically, they’re dark, all zombie au go-go and Misfity whoa-whoa), this CD doesn’t do ’em justice. Which is strange, cuz all the parties involved here are far from spring chickens. RCC is the graveyard party of some good Boston bands: 8-Ball Shifter singer EEE Adams (who always does the artwork, for better or worse), Cherry 2000 bassist Poundy, and Gardner Key from The Syphlloids. And the record was produced by Roadsaw’s Tim Catz, either a partner in Pig Pile Records, or he works there, or they let him sleep off hangovers there, whatever…

So, as a band, Rock City Crimewave has the talent and the chops, and what they lack in instant-memorability and staying power they make up for with a memorable overall vibe. In English, that means only a couple songs will actually stick in your head until you’ve seen them a half dozen times and really paid attention (and they attract a lot of hotties, so that’s difficult), but by the end of the first song, you’ll like them as a whole: Lock, stock, and sideburns.
(www.pigpilerecords.com)