Duck & Cover – “Duck & Cover”
So how was it back in the day Slimedog? I hear you first went to The Rat in 1977 to see The Cars before their first record was out.
Well, you went down to a cellar where two hundred people were smoking with no ventilation. The bartenders would sometimes scramble because a real rat was scurrying upon the floor. They had “Rat Brew” which was the remnants of drinks people had left and not consumed. The security consisted of pumped up steroid Italian disco meat-heads from Revere who put somebody’s eyeball out once causing a week’s suspension for the club.
And the toilets must have challenged CBGB’s. (I just read a story about Tommy Ramone punching Johnny Thunders in the bathroom there ’cause Tommy needed to take a leak and Johnny needed to shoot up!) The flies lived there all year long in the bathrooms, in the dead of winter they’d still be there.
The affable doorman, Mitch, was an older gentleman with a short white man’s Afro and bushy sideburns and dressed in a white wedding shirt and peach colored three piece suit. The only problem was he had lost his vocal cords along the way and spoke to you with a device placed up against his throat. It was not a welcome sight to show up at the club on drugs and hear this metallic voice going. “That’ll be five dollars, fellas.”
Which bring us to Duck & Cover’s new album release.
You might wonder- what’s up with all this prelude to Duck & Cover? How does this make sense?
Well, life doesn’t make sense, sister. But this prelude is here because this band plays, “garage, pop/punk, rock’n’roll” according to their bandcamp tags and this they do exceptionally well.
This is the sound of the original Boston punk scene. How do I know? Well, sweetheart, I was there. It was more garage rock than punk rock then and hardcore a great, but very small part of the scene.
How do they get this sound? Well, the key is in the rhythm section. How the drummer kicks a beat, the way the bass player plays with some balls behind him. This is hard hitting garage punk’n’roll with passion, guts and energy. And do I think that that’s a good recipe for music and do I think these are talented chefs as well?
I do, but the proof is in the pudding, sugar. Let’s give these items a taste.
“Stand Corrected” starts with some ringing guitar chords all alone until the drums come in kicking the beat up a notch. Then the vocals come scraping and screeching in while the rhythm section ably ambles along. “I stand corrected…I stand rejected/ But don’t let it go to your head.” This is a catchy pop song with enough grit and emotion to make me think that it’s some long lost song by The Replacements. After a couple of verses we’re into a sparse but effective guitar solo which is a line repeated four times with a little spin at the end. Then the chorus returns and the guitars are wailing, the drums are pounding a little harder and the vocals go “But don’t let it…” and my favorite song on the album trails off.
[audio:https://www.thrashnbang.com/wp-content/music/05 – Stand Corrected.mp3|titles=Stand Corrected]
“Alienate” starts with a single note feed-backing until once again the drums call court to order and commence chopping with a vengeance against anything that might stand in its way. This song is an adrenaline rush garage tune, a strung out Red Bull refrain; with growling, melodic vocals shadowed in the chorus by a harmonic guitar lick. A quick stop after a couple of verses for a lone guitar break then we’re back for some raucous, rockin’, punk’n’rollin’ rambunctious reverie. At the end of the song the drums rush headlong with a snare hit on every beat as the vocals repeat, “I watch you bleed.” Awesome tune.
[audio:https://www.thrashnbang.com/wp-content/music/01 – Alienate.mp3|titles=01 – Alienate]
“A Kind Of Love In” starts with stuttering, slashing guitars; stop and go pulverizing rhythms until finally we’re thrust ahead into a straight ahead verse with a wah-wah, phasing guitar percolating under the floorboards. Then a chorus with a slower rhythm spurts up with a ringing guitar line above. Rolling drums and scraping guitar bring us into another verse of anxious drums and gutsy vocals. At one point a short melodic guitar solo comes in before we’re grabbed by the neck into another cascading chorus. Trips and turns like an extra play on a pinball machine makes this song a winner.
[audio:https://www.thrashnbang.com/wp-content/music/07 – A Kind of Love In.mp3|titles=A Kind of Love In]
“Knock ‘Em Down” starts with a guitar lick jabbing left and right until someone alerts the band with the command, “Go!” Then we’re full force into the fray with all guns blarin’! The vocals spit out a line as four grungy guitar chords await in anticipation to throw the venom back into the singers face. After a few verses a guitar solo comes in on a chord change/key change but soon again we’re stomping to a beat and a passionate plea, “How low will you go?” There’s a little bass/ drums breakdown that instead of coming back to the high energy original part- slows down. The vocals actually recall Alice Cooper to me which is magnificent because it has never happened to me before and probably won’t happen again! Better question- how high do I rate this song? Boundless.
[audio:https://www.thrashnbang.com/wp-content/music/08 – Knock em Down.mp3|titles=Knock em Down]
Duck & Cover is a great new local band that skirts around the genres of garage rock, pop/punk and punk’n’roll while creating an original sound.
But categories are swell if you’re a music writer. They don’t mean shit if you’re a musician or a fan.
How about “songs with guts and passion”- is that a category? I’d place these boys in there without any reservation.
Can I put them, along with The Black Cheers, as two of the new bands that most embody the spirit of Boston eighties punk rock to me? Can I say I get a glimpse of glam in this band, as well, reminding me of the great band Hanoi Rocks? Can I say that this band is chock full of all that’s true and real and good in music and hell, maybe in life?
You make your own definitions, make your own references, your own conclusions- that’s fine by me.
I just know when these songs fly by, I won’t duck and cover. I’ll just let them hit me straight up in my eardrums, like bugs on a windshield on the old highway, and I’m sure I’ll be smiling.
(Slimedog)
