Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best of '99?, August 24, 1999
(This review edited to conform to content restrictions.) Godfuggindam! It's going to be awful hard to top this one in the few short months remaining before the big one drops. I dunno who these guys/gal are or where the hell they come from, but this is one of the best rack'n'roll records you're EVER gonna hear. The other fan review posted here checks Tina Turner and that's not stretching the truth even a LITTLE bit. The woman fronting this band, she just fu@#in' WAILS like you would not believe, cranking out incredible doses of grit and fire. Looking at the record a certain way, I do have to admit that both the vox and the songs/playing do derive from fairly commonplace generic forms. I mean, there's no shortage of blues/gospel divas with lungpower and certainly we got enuf snot-nosed punks huffing on those shiny chrome Dee-troit tailpipes. The genius here is in the cross-pollination and the execution. What's weird is how doggone OBVIOUS the idea is, once you grasp it. The MC5 wanted to be Black Panthers almost as much as they wanted to rock, and Detroit is ground zero for both strains of American music on display here. The whole post-Mick-Collins garage generation worships at the feet of the soul-gospel-R&B fountainhead this band channels like they were seated at the right hand of Aretha freaking Franklin. Be warned (if yer a square unused to the production aesthetic of sloppy-ass garage rock) that the "direct-to-boombox-in-our-sock-cheese-smelling-practice-space" vibe of the recording does result in some muddiness. It doesn't matter though; the vocals and the energy cut right on through the fog. There's a purity and an intensity here that (God help me) even the Motor City 5ive never quite attained. This record NEVER lets up and there isn't one throwaway song in the bunch. I can't say enough good things about this! It just kill me to know that nobody's ever really going to hear this thing. This record should be HUGE! If the right people DID hear it, Lenny Kravitz would produce (and no doubt f@#k up) the next one, and it'd be blasting outta your in-dash AM radio for months next summer. I swear, this is the record that could break balls-out, hyperdriven garage-trash mayhem into the mainstream. Whatever you do, don't miss this. If you're a label assh@le, sign them NOW! Give them all your money!!! YOU ARE NOT WORTHY!
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
incredible rock 'n' roll, June 24, 1999
The BellRays combine the sounds of '60s and '70s Detroit, i.e. the working class hard rock that influenced punk and the rougher side of Motown, on their debut CD Let It Blast - basically like Tina Turner fronting the MC5. They're absolutely frigging incredible, one of the best bands I've heard in years. They're also great live - the last performance I saw had jaded rock critics lining up to buy their CDs. Take a chance on this one, make them rich and famous, you'll love every minute of it.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Testify!, June 19, 2000
Recently purchased this CD, and I have to say this is one of the most invigorating blasts of rock & soul that I have heard in a long, long while. People say rock is dead, and it's easy to understand that perspective if you only pay attention to the music that is popular right now. The Jam once sang about "Going Underground". The record buying population should heed this advice every now & then. So, go underground, and see what you find. If it's the BellRays, Let It Blast, I'd say it's a trip most worthwhile.
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- the new music site from IMDb and Amazon.
