Review, Jello Biafra atGSoM and Attentat albums

Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine
White People And The Damage Done
Download, CD, LP
Alternative Tentacles
(Review from the digital release)

Whatever Mr Biafra does he makes it sounds like a Dead Kennedys record. The new Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine album “White People and the Damage Done” is no exception. Since 1976 Jello Biafra has been mocking the stupidity of the Conservative America. Since 1978 he has done it on records. Since the breakup of Dead Kennedys in 1986 he have had numerous collaborations and Solo project. JBatGSoM is just another one.

The problems JB faces is that he done some of the World´s most significant punk hits with the Dead Kennedys like “Holliday in Cambodia”, “Let´s Lynch The Landlord”, “Kill The Poor”, “Too Drunk to Fuck”, “Halloween”, “We got a Bigger Problem Now” etc. And whatever he does now days I will, subconscious, compare it with the hits of his past. Not least of his way of singing it.

As always at a Biafra record there is a funny, thought-provoking title. No exception this time, “White People and the Damage done”, as a miss quote of Neil Young´s “The Needle and the Damage Done”. A macabre front cover as usual is in place. The Lyrics on the album is as political as ever. The tunes sounds a lot like Dead Kennedys tunes but with not as much treble as in DKs tunes. The similarity to DK is a bit problematic to me. I love Dead Kennedys, but I don´t love this. The record have a much more heavy sound than DKs ever had, so it should work, at least in theory. But the tunes isn´t as catchy as the former tunes was. They are catchy but not as catchy. After a while the record starts to stand out as an own record on its own terms. But at a first listen to it, it sounds like they try to be Dead Kennedys but can´t get it right. There are exceptions from it. The title track “White People and the Damage Done” and “Crapture” and “The Brown Lipstick Parade” are good tunes that I can like. Possible the “Hollywood Goof Disease” as well. The rest isn´t bad in any way but it is more mediocre and I got higher expectation on Mr Jello Biafra to get me jumping up and down in cheer joy.
There are a funny little steal from Deep Purple´s “Space Trucking” in “Crapture” that makes me smile.

Worth buying? Maybe, Possible, it depends. At least the good songs, on the other hand, listen to a full album makes more sense to it.

Attentat
Fy Fan
Download, CD, LP

(Review from the digital release)

Attentat´s singles released in 1978-1980 was the pride of my vinyl punk single collection. They were my teenage Idols, even if it wasn´t OK to have idols by the time. With the album era during the rest of the 1980ies I didn´t followed them as eager as I did before.

Attentats new album “Fy Fan” was proceded by a number of singles During 2012. The singles “Fy fan Svenska man”, “Occupy Wall Street”, “Dö som en hund”, “Sweet and Slade” with b-sides was released through the year 2012. So when the album actually reached the desk in 2013 it felt like it wasn´t a new album. The singles had already showed that this wasn´t going to be an easy album to review (that´s why it took some time to review it). mainly because it isn´t one album. It is parts of several different ones, hacked up and put into one album. At least that is my impression. It is a complicated affair because of it, to be nice, unfocused, to be rude.

Attentat have been around since the late seventies and gained some main stream success in the traces of KSMB and Ebba Grön. Not as successful as those however, but almost. And went from be some -77 type of street punks to a more pop oriented rock band. The silence that then followed during the years Attentat was down must have build up several different directions in the minds and taste of the members. And is it so, then it is what hear on the record. Like if they tried to get their ideas down in the recordings. I don´t know, but I can´t find another explanation to this record.

I can´t say I like it, I can´t say I don´t. Some tunes are good, some fair and some….well I don´t know. Seems like the charismatic singer Jönsson* likes his tune “Sweet and Slade”, about his teenage glam rock era idols. I can relate to it because I was a Sweet fan as a kid, but I can´t relate to the song in general. I think it is drivel, just as "Gilla mig" is. “Fattiga och rika” is something like a Clash “Should I stay or should I go” Pastiche and it works quite OK. “Dö some en hund” is punky and is like the old school Attentat been awake for a while.

This record isn´t great. Like the rest of the Attentat albums it isn´t. The sound is big but could be harder. And the outstanding hits that the earlier albums contained isn´t there either. But I think this was a necessary record for them to do. To get rid of what have been brewing during the silent years. In order to give place for another album much more sharp and focused in the future, I hope.

Worth buying? If you are a hard core Attentat fan and if you like their softer tunes, otherwise I would say, save your money because this year have many releases by great bands.

*What I can see on Facebook

Attentat at Debaser Slussen - I click on the "Like" button (live review)

Ther will be pictures later, please stay tuned.

The Crowd

Some smart ass booked Attentat the same night as Sweden played an important qualifying match for the next Football (Soccer) World Championship. Or maybe did they know what they were doing. The Club Debaser Slussen had to have open anyway and I can´t think of many bands that could attract such crowd under the same circumstances, than Attentat. Let´s say it was almost half full and it was decent from a Gothenburg band that tries to convince Stockholm about their greatness. On the good side, there wasn´t any trendies or hipsters around because of the hype, this was real to the bone punk fans, and even to the core Attentat fans. The young with studded jackets, skins and mohawks, in front jumping around, in the back the beer bellies chanting in every chorus of the old songs like they hasn´t done anything else the last decades than practice on chanting that they don´t want a new Opera house, that “you” should leave them fucking alone and they are birds without legs. Surprising to see so many young and old skinheads find their way to Attentat, I click on the “Like” button.

The Place

Debaser Slussen´s days seem numbered because of the rebuilding of the whole area, and I won´t feel sorry about it. I don´t like the way they have lit up the stage or the club in general. Tonight the bar service is great and that makes it OK.

The Bands

The Nature

It is a horrible booking to let The Nature up on stage as a support act to Attentat. It doesn´t give the band The Nature the chance they deserve and the crowd (me) the right mood. The Natures trashy indie pop should be fine any other night, but now I can´t relate to them as anything else that something that should end as fast as it is possible. Too bad, another night I might liked them, but not last night.

Attentat

Attentat was a most important *band in the Swedish punk flora, starting out as a hard 77 type of band in 1978, they transformed to a mainstream rock punk band that attracted attention from national broadcasted media in the early 1980ies, to be back at small pub gigs at Tre Backar in the end of the decade. The ever young teenager (at least in his lyrics) singer Mats Jönsson seems to know how to speak to young and frustrated generations in his lyrics.

I can´t think of any other punk band that can play a ballad of fear and shortcomings and get some stone faced skinheads, mohawk punks and beer bellied drunks to sing along in it, all together. Attentat get such a thing going, very natural. Maybe because they are very honest about NOT having any Macho issues shown in songs like “Manskomplex”, a song from a never released demo* in 1981 but still a big crowd pleaser. It is a lot of Woahhh waouhh aeaeaeahh in their chorus that makes it easy to sing along with. But it doesn´t come for free to the band. As I pointed out many times, the Stockholm crowd is a rather stiff crowd, Attentat seems to take that as a challenge, and with their bond to the crowd and routine they manage to get the crowd going and it looks like that most people have a jolly good time. I know I got it.
But it isn´t all trouble free, there is one annoying thing with the band onstage, too many new songs. The new songs isn´t played with the same obvious Attentatness as the old tunes.  The new album “Fy fan” is a complex album and all of the songs doesn´t manage to compete with their old classics at such a night as this. Not that they are bad songs but there is better song from their old days that are better. On the other hand, I fully understand them, they are here to convince us that they have a future as a vital band full of new ideas and strength more than a punk revival act to cash in on old glory.  “Fattiga och rika” and “Dö som en hund” make their way to my heart. “Gilla mig” doesn´t have the same strength, but seems like it is very much an open gateway to Mats Jönssons frustrated heart. He introduce it as song about a pathetic phenomena, to spend our days going for the most “Like” clicks on Facebook. Mocking himself, the bass player Crippa (I often “Like” click his posts, haha) and us in the audience. It is funny and thoughtful but I rather seen them played some of their old classics like “Hej Gamle man”, “Hårding” or else of their song treasures.


And so...

Worth the money? 100SKr Yes! Just to see the Bass player “Crippa” do the 1,2,3,4 count, in Stockholm dialect (this time only, he claimed) was worth the price of a beer.

* I travelled miles to see Attentat as one of my first live punk shows in the early 80ies, collected their early singles with a certain eager as many others did.

**  Now you can find it on compilation albums.

Fy Fan, Attentat!

Attentat releases a new album today, Fy Fan (transl. Damn It)

Lyrics in Swedish and in the tradition of their previous records.

A handfull singles been released during 2012.

Possible will I review it in a couple of days, will listen to it first.

Record Releases Winter Spring 2013

After a tremendous punk live concert year (At least from my Swedish Stockholm point ot view) we can now look forward to a great? year of record releases?
I will keep on updating the way I have the time to do it.

Recordreleases 2013, stay tuned for updates.

8th (Irl/UK) 9 (US/Can) 11(Global) of Januari  Dropkick Murphys (US) - Signed and sealed in Blood (Listen to it here)

22th of Januari Crash Diet (Swe) release party at Jan 30

6th  of februari   Attentat (Swe) - Fy Fan  (CD/LP) (Attentat was founded in 1978)


6th of March  Köttgrottorna (Swe) - (More info will follow)  (30 celebrate 30 years as a band)
Releaseparty at Debaser.


From what I heard we can look forward to releases from Vänsternäven, Rancid, Nej, (Possibly Ligisterna?), Nicola Sarcevic of Millencollin and more...