ROCKET FROM THE TOMBS
Rocket Redux (Smog Veil)
Reviewed by John Sekerka

---

So here it is, Cleveland, 1974, the birth of punk. No really. Rocket From the Tombs invented punk. And good punk too. Not just the sloppy, we can't play but here we are punk. "30 Seconds Over Tokyo," "Ain't It Fun," "Sonic Reducer," "Final Solution" - classic thinking man's punk rock, before they were etched in stone by post RFTT spin off bands Pere Ubu and the Dead Boys. Ferocious backstage/onstage fisticuffs made for a very short band history. So here it is, thirty years later, and inexplicably RFTT are at it again. Cheetah Chrome and David Thomas are at each others' throats, but they are touring, and here's the proof. New guitarist Richard Lloyd (of Television fame, replacing the deceased Peter Laughner) thought so much of the stage show, he managed to get the band in the studio long enough to cut a quick and clean version of the set list. And folks, it is a sonic miracle. The missing link between Captain Beefheart (intelligent abstract rock) and Iggy Pop (garage punk cacophony). Absolutely essential.

© 2004 - John Sekerka