The 1981 Listening Post - Twitch - Twitch and Shout

 Reviewed by Paul J Zickler

Released: 1981 Twitch Twitch And Shout Genre: Power Pop Rock Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Highlights: Ring True This Boy’s Got It What Do You Say Something I Can Touch Back in 1962, in a season 6 episode of The Flintstones, Rock Roll had a big hit in Bedrock with The Twitch, a dance craze record best known for the line, “Twitch, twitch.” Sixty years later, kids get their Twitch on via the video streaming chat app, best known as a gaming platform, but also handy for watching old movies while interacting with friends. Somewhere in between, Garwood Wallace, Bryan Pratt and Steve Feldman started a rock and roll band and named it Twitch. They released one long player, titled Twitch and Shout, on Bomb Records out of Toronto. Twitch were a Power Pop Power Trio, which is kind of fun to say. They seemed to be going for that New Wave look, based on the album cover and publicity photos. Musically, they were influenced not only by the usual suspects (Buddy Holly, Raspberries, Big Star, etc.), but also by Rockabilly, Boogie, Pub Rock, and even Stadium Rock (minus the distortion). Most of the songs don’t fit the New Wave blueprint, and the ragged performance energy and predominance of bass in the mix makes me think they really didn’t want to be New Wavers at all. Lead singer’s glasses aside, there’s precious little Elvis Costello influence here, a rarity in 1981, apparently. This is a pretty fun listen, even if none of it is earth shaking or life changing. There are a few missteps (not sure what they were going for with Take It Back – John Denver maybe?), but there are also highlights, all of which hint at a band that was probably very entertaining live. Ring True harnesses a Bo Diddley beat to channel some Stray Cats energy. This Boy’s Got It uses a simple but effective fifties rock guitar riff to propel a high speed romp with some stop and go rhythms. What Do You Say, which probably should have been a single, opens with a ZZ Top style boogie before downshifting into a sweet Power Pop chorus, throwing in a brief Loggins & Messina bridge and finally crashing down with a jamming fadeout. The irresistible Something I Can Touch piles up multiple hooks over a driving beat while telling the old sob story: “Staring at the microphone / I know you’re out there, but I feel alone / Give me a sign / Call out my name…” Clearly Mr. Wallace had some songwriting chops, and the band delivers the goods, especially on these tracks. Sadly, they only Twitched for a very short time, and as far as I can tell, they shall Twitch no more, forever.

The 1981 Listening Post - Terry Dolan/Terry & the Pirates - Wind Dancer

 Reviewed by Geo Rule

Released: 1981 Terry Dolan / Terry & The Pirates Wind Dancer Genre: Country-Infused Folk Rating: 3.25 out of 5 Highlights: Poetrain True Medicine Apparently, Terry Dolan was a minor legend in the Bay Area (San Francisco) music scene from the late 60’s until the late 80s or so. Adding to the legend, was the ’73 debut album with a goodly number of big names contributing, that Warner Bro. killed two months before its release. Dolan’s champion at the company moved on, and the new team just didn’t believe in the project. It was finally released due to the efforts of a long-time fan/friend in 2016, four years after Dolan’s death. After that heartbreak, Dolan is reported to have licked his wounds for a while, and then back into the SF scene as the front man for an ever-evolving group of Bay Area musicians as “Terry and the Pirates”. They managed a few small releases from smaller labels, but the promise that Dolan’s career seemed to have in ’72 never recovered. Dolan’s voice is little better than serviceable, but plenty have had great success with less. Looking around for opinions on Dolan, the one that stuck with me as I listened was “Somewhere between Van Morrison and Jackson Browne, but with less talent.” I’d throw some Don McLean in there too. Maybe a bit of J.D. Souther. Very definitely a “story-teller mentality” here. Musically, it’s a mish-mash. There’s quality lead guitar, boogie-woogie piano, and some smoky jazz saxophone. Also, flute. Steel guitar. At one point I thought “is that a xylophone?”, but I suspect it was just a synth. Yeah, hard to hone a coherent marketing message around this. The boogie woogie piano leads the way on “Country Plow” and “Heartbeat.” By far my favorite song on the album is “Poetrain”, a sad ballad about the artist’s life that really hits the sweet spot in Dolan’s voice. Another ballad, “True Medicine”, was also excellent. Made me wonder if he could have made a career out of that kind of stuff and just not muddied the marketing message with the rock/boogie stuff. Probably harder to fill bars with that tho, which seems to have been his meat and potatoes once Warner walked. But I listened to both “Poetrain” and “True Medicine” three times each, so I guess I liked them well enough to justify the rating.

The 1980 Listening Post - Rockets (FR) - Galaxy

 Reviewed by Jim Coursey

Released: 1980 Rockets (FR) Galaxy Genre: Sci Fi Rock / “We Bought A Vocoder” Rating: 2.5 out of 5 Highlights: Galactica Mecanic Bionic In the Galaxy The live videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kI0TzwJB8rY Their older music videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxLMyG_2qJk Sci-fi stadium rock beamed back to 1980s Italy from a distant future, French/Italian Rockets’ fourth album adds more polish and bravado to their “futuristic” sound. You can hear a variety of influences here – Kraftwerk’s vocoder-fueled robot chic, Pink Floyd’s mysticism, prog rock’s pomposity, and often a four-to-the-floor disco beat. It’s the kind of mix that probably went over great in Italy (see that live video) but is too shallow to make a bigger mark. Nothing here rises to the level of Rockets’ 1978 electro blues cover of Canned Heat’s “On The Road Again.” They’ve traded the economical, hypnotic churn of that song for reverb and bombast. It’s hard to tell whether it’s more technophiliac or dystopian, but where bands like Kraftwerk, Devo and Rush use technology to advance vague philosophical ideas, the future world Rockets paints comes off as silly and superficial. Styx would come along and tread similar ground within a year, with better songwriting chops and more commanding vocals. Ultimately no amount of musicianship will save you if your concept is only one rung above Buckner and Garcia. The album is particularly funny to me because it reminds me so much of my college friends’ band Knodel, who claimed to be from “future France” and made heavy use of vocoders in a synth rock context. But they hadn’t heard Rockets, they just had a nose for cliché. While Knodel were equally flimsy conceptually, they were not remotely self-serious and again far catchier songwriters. The only thing the Rockets had on them was 20 years and wicked stage production. (If you’re into the Fall and want a laugh, take a listen to “Mecanic Bionic” and pretend it’s Mark E. Smith’s long lost attempt at synth pop.)

The 1986 Listening Post - Agnostic Front - Cause For Alarm

Agnostic Front - Cause For Alarm

#191/1336

May 1986

Agnostic Front

Cause for Alarm

Genre: Thrunk

4.5 out of 5

Highlights: 

Growing Concern

Toxic Shock

Shoot His Load

In the Venn diagram of Punk and Thrash is this record by Agnostic Front. Bolder, richer and more assaultive than their first, I highly recommend this for listening the day after Thanksgiving, at the breakfast table, with coffee in hand, after dealing with family and issues, when you really need to pound out some spleen.

https://music.apple.com/us/album/cause-for-alarm/980766071

The 1984 Listening Post - Agnostic Front - Victim in Pain

Agnostic Front - Victim in Pain

#72

1984 Housekeeping

Agnostic Front

Victim in Pain

4 out of 5

Highlights:

Victim in Pain

United and Strong

My mother would have loved this album. And by “love” I mean, burst into my room, ripped the LP off my turntable and broken it in two, slamming the door on her way out.
And that would be because I would have been blasting this loud enough that it could be heard 2 houses away. 

At 15 minutes, I’m not sure how this can be thought of as an “album” but, they get in, they spit their fury, they get the hell out. And the production isn’t terrible. Not great, but, it’s punk. It’s supposed to sound like it was put together for $1.50. (I know, Black Flag sounds like that, too, but, theirs is significantly worse) and these guys are closer in relation and sound to Suicidal Tendencies and ST is better. We all know that. 

A pretty great example of the Lower East Side NY Punk scene committed to vinyl. (And yes, I am listening to it with 2019 ears and I still like it.)

https://open.spotify.com/album/39hGav62pfB42d5UiqkiPW?si=fIgDw9PpS0WKH_FWM5Tycw