#209
1980 Housekeeping
Rubber City Rebels
Rubber City Rebels
Genre: Garage
3.25 out of 5
Highlight:
Child Eaters
Requisite 80s covers:
“Somebody’s Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In Tonight”. While the biggest surprise to me was that this is an early Fleetwood Mac song, let’s face it, The Rezillos did the definitive version and no one needs to do it again. At least, not 2 years later. And not to open your record. Come on, guys.
And then you follow it up with The Nerves’ “Paper Dolls” and do nothing more than make it sound just like the original? Ugh.
“No Feelings”, a neat little rave up of the Sex Pistols classic. Probably the best track on a mediocre record. And draws the line between the Sex Pistols and Green Day nicely.
Hoo boy, you open your record with not one, but two covers and then close it with another, everything in between better be great. I don’t mind having albums filled with other people’s songs. I mind it when you write your own but think it’s stronger to open it with someone else’s stuff. It’s a red flag to me.
Especially when the first one was already covered so perfectly by one of the best New Wave bands of the era.
I blame the producer. Doug Fieger knows better. He knows better because the Rebels actually know what they are doing. But he also knows that there’s no catchy tune to open the album with. While the middle of the album is perfectly fine Power Pop, nothing explodes and makes you long to pick up an invisible instrument and play along. So, he’s right. But he’s also wrong because they should have been forced to come up with a better opening track of their own making. Maybe “Lonely Fool” could have opened this record. At least they would have put their stamp on it.
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