I am almost 45 years old, I live with my dad. I am tee-total, I don’t even take paracetamol unless I can help it. I am cool with all those things, this isn’t a cry for help.
It’s more that I am as far away from the “live fast die young” ethos as you can get. Consequently, since I was a kid I have lived my – as Guns N Roses might put it – reckless life through Rock N Roll. I love all sorts of music, but there is still something that gets me about a band that sounds like if they moved in next door, the house prices would go down. One that is, basically, the last gang in town.
Step right up, then The Idolizers.
Bursting out of NYC with names like Tommy Brimstone (he’s the drummer) and Mike Dee Thrill Sergeant (he sings/growls/sneers) this four tracker is not so much a debut statement as a celebration. 12 minutes, four songs, but something life affirming too. Something that says “rock n roll, baby! It’s the cure for what ails you.”
You know its going to be ace from the opening. “Stranded (Again)” even starts with a solo sounds so ready to fight its got the Stooges in the back alley ready to rumble, and that’s kind of the vibe throughout. That feeling that “its always funny until someone gets hurt….then its just hilarious” (to quote Faith No More) it walks that line brilliantly too.
“Golden Days” has a punk feel, but also a sort of Motorhead boogie. Lemmy is definitely suppling the drinks – and who knows what else? Here. The title track (and so good is the rest of it, I haven’t even had chance to take my hat off to the pun, yet!) adds some glorious 50s style do-wop harmony to the New York Dolls type brew, and you can see these as the sort of leather clad lovers that were central to the plot of Grease.
“She’s A Killer” thunders in on a filthy sounding riff. Whoever the girl involved is, she’s even scarier than The Idolizers – and believe me, that takes some doing. The song itself, is an intriguing window to what might be on the full length album. Heavier, darker but no less brilliant, and when Dee asks “Can I get a witness?” I can confirm I saw nothing. And even if I did, my lips are sealed tighter than the The Go-Go’s were in the 80s.
Plenty here to love, plenty here to get nostalgic about, but more than that, plenty to look forward too. “Exile On Pain Street” is a study in rock n roll, nothing more, nothing less.
Rating 9/10
