Customer Reviews

Bored

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Having never heard this band before, I opened the jewel case with some trepidation. However, I was not seriously disappointed. Consider the musicians: former members of the Stooges and the MC5. Add one unique vocalist. Insert into the late '70s music scene and stir vigorously. On the surface, DAM sounds like the Stooges with a female vocalist. But I have listened to the CD several times, and it's growing on me....Major complaint: It's too damn short! Only seven tracks. Now I'm thinking about the Silver Wedding Anniversary...

This is a very unique CD. It's where Detroit sleezy 70's proto-punk (Ron Asheton of the Stooges, Mike Davis of the MC5, sounds like Steve Mackay on sax (Stooges "Funhouse") meets the New/No Wave of Richard Hell and the Voidoids. The singer, Niagara, sounds like a demented Debby Harry (more like the Bush Tetras). Very cool. Perhaps a bit dated with the "chorus" effect on the guitars and the self-consciously arty No-Wave quirkiness of Niagara's vocals, but Ron Asheton's guitar slays, as always. RIP Ron.

This release is important in that it includes their eight single sides as well as a tune called "Anyone Can **** Her" one I hadn't heard before, a lost (lost to an audience until now) and strange tune, but released here as if a hanging participle, not belonging to the group of standard DAM 45 releases with which it shares the slab, and not a proper single with no B-side track. This mini album is a great collector starter kit of studio singles of Destroy All Monsters, well worth owning for the collection.

For additional comments on Destroy All Monsters, read the review for "The Night That Never Ends," then read "Live In Tokyo & Osaka" the only non-starter of the lot, probably because it is not DAM, the real DAM.

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This is a different DAM than I had hopped it was. I saw a DAM at a small Northern Minnesota (Rutledge, MN) Bar back in the late 1980s (while on a Rock Climbing Trip to a Rock Quarry in Sandstone, MN.) and they kicked but -- they were a 3 piece that covered everything from REM to Led Zep. plus their own stuff. These guys are OK but they aren't the DAM I was looking for of my drunken youth. Old Downtown Rutledge, MN. used to have 2 Bars, 1 Rock and the other Country -- I think both are now gone?