Thursday, July 10, 2008

Rock and roll will never die…it just gets really sleepy

My straight-up review of the straight-up rock band Skybombers. They’re out of Melbourne, Australia, where they put sticks in the air and count “1, 2, 3, 4” without an iota of irony, god bless them.

Skybombers
Take Me To Town
(Albert Productions)
US release date: 13 May 2008
UK release date: 13 May 2008

Once more for old time's sake

Rock and roll will never die, we are told, again and again, as a steady stream of oldies flits by on radio shows (most of them, ironically enough, by dead or retired rock stars). The rebellion that is rock is forever in danger of slipping into a coma, canonized by Mojo and enshrined in any number of television ads. But the thing is, rock and roll never will die, because it will be reinvigorated repeatedly, given CPR by bratty young punks with today’s lock on melody and mayhem. The Skybombers, out of Melbourne, Australia, are just another in a long tradition that started with the Beatles, the Who, and the Stones, and has lately wound through Oasis, the Strokes, the Libertines, and the Arctic Monkeys.

All of which means that there is nothing much new about Take Me To Town, from its blustery power chords to its raggedy vulnerable vocals to its twitchy and angst-filled rain of strumming. For god’s sake, there is even a track called “Teenage Dreams”, a blistered barrage of guitar fuckery and pulsing bass that the boys of Skybombers may well be singing—and rather sick of—in their reunion tour a decade or two hence. And yet, however straight-up Skybombers’ approach to garage-into-stadium rock may be, it is undeniably fun. It always is. That’s why we keep coming back.

More here: http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/60218/skybombers-take-me-to-town/

“Always Complaining”


A media player with some additional songs is here:



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