I Ain't In A Slump, I Just Ain't Hitting

Of all the Boston Crew-type HC bands that went metal back in the '80s (which was pretty much all of 'em), I think that Jerry's Kids ended up making the best "post-XClaim!-era" record with "Kill Kill Kill", which in some ways has a sound that isn't all that separated from "Is This My World?" --- sure, some of the lyrics are dumber, and there's a bigger "metal" sound to the drums and guitars, but the songwriting in general tends to fall back onto straight hardcore thrash and a few of the songs on "Kill Kill Kill" wouldn't have sounded at all out of place if they'd been recorded back when "Is This My World"?" was being made. The F.U.'s, on the other hand, not only changed their name (to Straw Dogs) but changed their sound entirely, and "We Are Not Amused" is pretty much a straight-up commercial metal/hard rock record with barely a trace of punk to be found at all, other than Sox' vocals of course. It's not a great record all the way through -- the quality level really drops off after the top four or five songs -- but the guitars pack way more of a punch than any of the rock slough released by SSD or DYS (for instance), and it also has some of the best drumming I've ever heard on a hard rock record. I say that there's not much punk involved, but I suppose it takes a punk to take pot shots at all the phony "sign of the devil" Mötley Crüe crap and hit the target as dead-on as "Carnival In Hell" does. I'm not exactly sure what the slags against John Sex Bomb and the Anthrax Club on the thank you list/lyric sheet are all about, but I'm guessing it probably has something to do with a show that the F.U.'s tried to play at the old Stamford Anthrax years ago. At least, I think I read about it in a book somewhere.

Straw Dogs -

"Carnival In Hell"

"The Hunger"

"In Deep"

"Trigger Finger"

I Am Twisting The Knife That's In Your Back

The F.U.'s were one of the greatest bands ever, and anyone who doesn't think so can drop right now and give me twenty. The Straw Dogs aren't too far down on the list, either-- I mean, they weren't all that different from "Young Fast Iranians"-era F.U.'s anyway, especially compared with XClaim! SSD/DYS and Modern Method SSD/DYS, which were like two different animals. But, man, you could take the top dozen or so Boston bands from the '80s and let me have all of their records - every SS Decontrol record, every F.U.'s record, every Mission of Burma, Moving Targets, DYS, Gang Green, Negative FX, Jerry's Kids, and so forth - and I'd never have to buy another record again. That town was the best, lemme tell ya.

I think the problem the Straw Dogs faced, at least in my neck of the woods, was that the record stores didn't know what bin to put them in; the punk kids weren't buying their records, and the metal kids weren't having it, either. Not caring either way, I bought "We Are Not Amused" back in '86 and played it to friggin' death. Just the opening drum beats to "Carnival In Hell", the lead-off track, let you know that this wasn't going to be some watered-down "How We Rock" type garbage. I mean, that record flat-out smokes.

The "Man In The High Tower" 45, while not quite up to par with the other Straw Dogs stuff, is still pretty righteous, and you certainly can't accuse Steve Grimes of not knowing how to write a song. Okay, I'll admit that most of "Do or Die" is kinda corny, until you get to the last half of the song where the riff slows down into Judas Priest "Heading Out To The Highway" speed, and then the thing reaches a new level of awesome. The a-side is a rocker all the way through, and does anyone else think the intro sounds like Man Sized Action? Just checking.




Straw Dogs -

"Man In The High Tower"

"Do or Die"

(these files are now listen-only)