Every now and then something lands in my inbox with an unexpected hook that immediately gets my attention. Such was the case with the email I received from Rob Moss regarding Records<\/i>, the third album by Rob Moss And Skin-Tight Skin, which mentioned Rob\u2019s former band, Artificial Peace, in the subject line. <\/p>\n
Back in ye olden days (i.e.<\/i>, mid-to-late 1980s), when dual cassette decks were still coveted and I was trying to collect every scrap of music out of Washington, D.C., demos and live shows by Artificial Peace were especially sought out. The band appeared on the seminal Dischord Records compilation Flex Your Head<\/i> but, beyond those three songs and a hard-to-find split 7\u201d with Exiled, you had to trade cassettes to get the full studio demos or any live material. <\/p>\n
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The band was a bracing blast of first wave American hardcore, and in 2010 Dischord Records finally released the complete demos officially. A 1982 live recording was issued in 2022 by Alona\u2019s Dream Records with an accompanying photobook, as well. Clearly, that music has stood the test of time and remains highly recommended, but 40-plus years later I was most intrigued to hear what the bassist for Artificial Peace (and also the legendary Government Issue, for a time) was up to in the here and now. <\/p>\n
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And in the here and now what we\u2019ve got is a core band of Moss on vocals and rhythm guitar, Danny Frankel of DC new wave pioneers Urban Verbs on drums and percussion, and Tom McNally on bass, backing vocals, and Hammond C3 organ. There are also 11 special guests adding lead guitar to each of the 12 songs. The album clocks in at 32:32, which means things do indeed keep moving.<\/p>\n
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Leadoff track \u201cWe Just Don\u2019t Know\u201d sets the tone for what\u2019s to come with a classic power pop punk tune featuring a bit of Heartbreakers\/mid-period Ramones action and a dollop of Cheap Trick. Vocally Moss can exhibit hints of everyone from early hardcore fellow traveler Keith Morris to Dee Dee Ramone. In fact, Dee Dee, whose handful of bubblegum-catchy solo releases have rightly been reappraised, is a comparison that surfaces at several points. \u201cHey You (We\u2019re Sick of You)\u201d crosses Iggy Pop swagger with the tuneful roar of England\u2019s Vibrators and Lurkers, keeping things propulsive and toe-tapping. <\/p>\n
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\u201cYou And Time\u201d is a wistful ode to the ever-quickening march of years that delivers us all to the same end. Here there\u2019s a bit more English rock-punk creeping in, and I\u2019m reminded of Glen Matlock\u2019s sophisticated post-Pistols band Rich Kids. \u201cThe World (Is A Playground)\u201d is a duet with Jen D\u2019Angora, who fittingly brings a little Debbie Harry\/Fay Fife (The Rezillos) to the proceedings while \u201cI Got Lots Of Problems\u201d put me in mind of early \u201970s glam rock with a hook-laden bridge that Dee Dee could\u2019ve written. <\/p>\n
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\u201cBasement Party\u201d is an ode to high school partying set to a soundtrack that might\u2019ve wafted out of the doorway of an early CBGB\u2019s gig. The mid-tempo \u201cRight Hook\u201d is a tuneful, mid-tempo favorite with a stinging Johnny Thunders-esque guitar lead. \u201cIn The Canebrake\u201d chugs nicely with noirish vibes (have I mentioned Moss\u2019 excellent 2015 crime novel, Descending Memphis<\/i>?) and both \u201cThe Next Time (I See You)\u201d and \u201cInk Blue Smoke Again\u201d mix power-pop and punk with maybe a dash of The B-52\u2019s. \u201cWhat Happened (To The Rock \u2018N\u2019 Roll)?\u201d celebrates the basic tenets of gritty rock, both lyrically and musically, while lamenting the loss of said grit with an echo or two of Mott The Hoople. Finally, in the grand tradition of other touchstones, such as Generation X or The Clash, the last song on the record cuts and chops \u201cWe Just Don\u2019t Know\u201d into a dub to bring things full circle.<\/p>\n
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All these years on and you still can\u2019t go wrong with half an hour of short, catchy songs laden with buzzsaw guitars and appropriate attitude. If you enjoy power pop, glam, the more tuneful side of early punk, and maybe even the primitive songwriting of Midwestern proto-punk, I think you\u2019ll find something to like here. Punk and hardcore often sunk its hooks deep, and it\u2019s always cool when someone who was in on the ground floor of something reappears\u2014even decades later\u2014producing music that is still filled with outsider sneer and rock and roll fun. Records<\/i> is very worth checking out, and bonus points for the nice graphics by Jason Farrell, whose band Swiz also got the dub decks turning all those years ago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":97,"featured_media":35217,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[11050],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-47101","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-rob-moss-skin-tight-skin","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/47101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/97"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/47101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47101"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=47101"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=47101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}