Review:
Kepi Ghoulie - I Bleed Rock 'N' Roll
Kepi Ghoulie wasn’t messing around with the title of his latest solo effort. Falling somewhere between Social Distortion, the Exploding Hearts and Violent Femmes, I Bleed Rock ’N’ Roll is decidedly the most straightforward rock record of his 15-plus-year career. Kepi’s signature silliness is still very much a part his songwriting, but does not take the center stage as it did in his previous solo records. The songs are still simple and fun, but carry a little more weight than your average Saturday morning cartoon theme.
“Nikki Lee” hits hard and fast with fervent alliteration, reverbed guitars and a no-frills power-pop hook. The title track is a love song to rock ’n’ roll itself, punctuated with big guitar riffs and a heart-thumping rhythm. Kepi brings it down a notch in “I Just Wanted You To Know”; a simple, heartfelt and vulnerable love song that anxiously exposes his true emotions. On the other side of the emotional spectrum, “Break My Heart” bites the bullet for an inevitable breakup. Kepi flexes his creative muscle when he describes picking his heart up out of the gutter, putting it through a shredder and then asking a tailor to fix it.
DOG PARTY
Review:
Dog Party – Lost Control
Louder Than War reviews the new album by Dog Party, the band consisting of Sacramento, California sisters Gwendolyn and Lucy Giles, out now on the excellent Asian Man Records label.
Dog Party – Lost Control is a testament to the early ‘three chord’ shreds that were the staple of any punk rock diet since The Ramones. What this Sacramento duo have managed to do is rekindle that sound without it becoming a gimmick. If you’re looking for a bastardised tribute act who, even though they write their own songs, have no originality or progression from a time long past then you are looking in the wrong place…
As a wholly female fronted band the group, mostly due to the vocals, seem to borrow a lot from other bands who are also all female; Slant 6, Lunachicks, and the late 90′s pop-punkers Tuuli, but whether this is meant as an intentional statement of feminism or just a coincidence is debatable. What can be said is the two are clearly having a lot of fun with their music. The mood of the entire record is very upbeat and playful, just listen to ‘Jet Pack’ and ‘Flamingo Go’ and you’ll find it impossible to disagree, and it’s a great soundtrack to decent weather and booze. The first time I listened tho the record I was on a huge bike ride and even though the majority of the journey was spent listening to music of a much heavier nature, tough music for a tough mentality being the theory, this was a welcome change and made the whole endurance test of the ride a much more enjoyable experience for the just over thirty minute album length.
Many artists with their hearts still firmly in the sounds of the late seventies / early eighties fail to twist that feeling into audio that is both relevant to the modern day music scene and also the tip of the cap that they intended. Dog Party have not only managed this but have achieved it with an insane amount of success and style. I’d recommend this record to anyone of any age as there’s clearly no target demographic with this record, it’s just fast, simple, racy, three chord magic for anyone to enjoy.
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