I don’t listen to hype or buzz very often. Because of this I found myself listening to The Strokes’ new album, “Room On Fire,” with no knowledge of the band other than that this is their second release and there was a big whoop-dee-doo about them a few years back. Now I wonder: what was all the fuss about?
The band deals in a forgotten type of 1970s pop rock that quite a few people seem to be picking up these days. The emphasis is on catchy hooks and melodies, few if any instrumental solos and sentimental or angst-filled lyrical content. All fine and dandy, but the question still remains: so what?
I have nothing against pop-rock and in fact laud it when it is well done. But it seems The Strokes have forgotten the “rock” portion of the equation. Their music has the feeling of complacency, as if the band were so self-satisfied that they never felt the need to try anything new, or to at least bust out and boogie. Many of the songs lack the energy or creativity to make them real forces of nature, and often the band just plugs away as if they were just waiting for a hit single to come along.
I won’t disparage them the fact that they have a distinctive, not to mention quite likable, sound. The low-fi vocals and pristine arrangements, combined with melodies pulled right out of the Burt Bacharach songbook, give the music a nice, easy flow. I just wish they would have done more with it.
Unlike The Strokes, The Weirdos knew how to make original, interesting music without having much in the way of chops or production values. As one of the seminal Los Angeles punk bands from the 1970s, they released only a handful of recorded material, much of it now impossible to find in its original form. Fortunately, the band is getting about the same treatment the Misfits got a few years back, and much of their music is now available on CD. “We Got The Neutron Bomb: Weird World Volume Two” is the latest of these re-releases, compiling material recorded between 1977 and 1989.
What is revealed in these recordings is a band that created some of the best music from the early days of punk. Their songs, loud and furious but tinged with pop melodies, often carried the political messages that would become so prevalent in the genre a few years later. Tracks like “Shining Silver Light” have a bit of political sophistication, while at the same time pounding away with a wicked beat and lightening fast riffs. It’s the kind of music punk was meant to be: aggressive enough to get the message through but catchy enough to keep people listening.
This isn’t to say that every song on the album is a long-lost classic of punk. Instrumental tracks like “Hey Big Oil” and “Skateboards To Hell” sound like rejected Devo demos, nothing but simplistic electric plodding that feels more self-indulgent than anything else. The title track, which is indisputably a punk rock classic, already appeared in another version on the last compilation and on this album is a rather useless retread.
But the compilation is successful in that it reflects the spotty record of the band itself. Powerhouse songs like “Cyclops Helicopter” and “What Will You Do?” make the whole thing worthwhile not just for punk collectors but anyone into great rock ‘n’ roll.