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We've Forgotten More Than You'll Ever Know (2005)
Sorry / Roy the Boy / She's Got My Lovin' / Katrina Katrina / Expressway to Your Heart / Back at School / She's a Deceiver / Somedays / Danny's Sister / Midnight to Six / Black to Comm
Oh
yeah, this is more like it. Twenty seconds into "Sorry" (originally an Easybeats
song) I expected a kind of Five Horse Johnson light, nasty blues-rock
with wild blues riffs and raspy vocals, but it soon became clear that this
band's true allegiances are elsewhere to be found: in Detroit, Michigan, Australia
(not surprising when you have a few Aussies in your band) and Memphis, Tennessee.
Even though it seems as if the drummer plays on cardboard boxes once in a
while, We've Forgotten… is a riff-fest that mainly pays tribute to
the proto-punk raunch of The Stooges and the MC5, the wild rock & roll-interpretations
of Flamingo-era Flamin' Groovies and the glorious and still neglected
punk tradition of Australia. The band's leader is "The Cosmic Commander,"
a tattoo artist and former wrestling manager with a voice that suggests he
just drunk a bucket of nuclear waste and around him he's gathered a colourful
bunch with convincing credentials of underground rock & roll, with no less
than three vocalists alternating each other. One of these, Kevin McCarthy
(formerly of Limecell, world famous in some area of the world), proves
himself to be a fine soul shouter on "Katrina Katrina," a stylistic direction
that's also further explored by the band's cover of The Soul Survivors' classic
"Expressway to Your Heart." The band doesn't pretend to be original, offers
variations on Kinks and Chuck Berry-riffs ("Danny's Sister"), but manages
to keep the energy meter firmly in the red, and betrays more skill than most
other garage/high-energy bands and finds a nice balance of old and new. Apart
from the tracks already mentioned, there's the slow pounding of "She's a Deceiver"
(with vocals that recall Didjit Rick Sims), Pretty Things cover "Midnight
to Six" and an interpretation of the MC5's extended work-out "Black to Comm,"
complete with references to "Shakin' Street." Even though they're somewhat
less influenced by punk than Radio Birdman or the Celibate Rifles, those are
acts that'll pop up while listening to Johnny Casino's Easy Action, and that's
a compliment, as those bands introduced a take on punk/garage/rock 'n' roll
that no one had come up with before them. Unquestionably one of the best releases
on the Nicotine/Scarey-labels yet, We've Forgotten More Than You'll Ever
Know has the songs, the sound and spirit of irresistible rock 'n' roll
bursting with soul.
Read album reviews of similar or related artists: The Deviltones