The Revillos - Rev Up
#360
September 1980
The Revillos
Rev Up!
Genre: If you love The Rezillos…
4 out of 5
Highlights:
The Rock-A-Boom
Voodoo
Bobby Come Back to Me
Scuba Boy Bop
Requisite 80s covers:
“Cool Jerk”. On this album the weirdest thing about a cover is that all the songs sound like covers of 50s and 60s underground unheard classics, even though they’re not. They add nothing here. Stick to the Human Sexual Response version.
“Hippy Hippy Sheik”. Sure. Why not?
I talk a lot about my band. I know. It was the singularly most exciting and rewarding creative experience of my life. More than theater or film or the (unsold) screenplays I wrote, the (sold/garbage) screenplays I wrote, anything.
In the early days of the band, I can’t remember when but it was probably around 2002/2003 someone heard my stuff, I think it was on Audiogalaxy or Soulseek or something and they said they loved it. Especially because it reminded them of their favorite band, The Rezillos.
Now, the best comparison of our band so far to that date was that I was cross between Jello Biafra and Meat Loaf. Good. I love both those guys.
And then I got my hands on The Rezillos first album and…wow! Never had I expected to be compared to something that I would love as much as that record. From the opening cover of an early Fleetwood Mac song “Somebody’s Gonna Get Their Lead Kicked In Tonight” all the through “No!” and “Good Sculptures” I was transfixed.
When I learned that the band split up and resurged as The Revillos, so as avoid copyright, and released a record I…never listened to it. I was afraid that the magic would be gone.
Good thing.
This record is a LOT of fun. But it’s less snotty New Wave than it is a perfect double bill with B-52s. If you had no idea who it was and you heard “Rock a Boom” or “Scuba Boy Bop” you might get the two bands confused.
What was a more groovy/less snarky/double snotty version of The Dickies has added dance grooves and…scored.
I don’t think my band would have ever sounded like this.
That’s also a good thing.
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