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| Rebels Without A Contract |
| band: Goatskins |
| Album: No Album, Just Music |
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GOATSKINS ~ REBELS WITHOUT A CONTRACT
"There are two kinds of bands in Los Angeles: Those trying to get signed, and those trying to get out of a contract. Concerts are usually auditions. When the band don't care, sometimes a little rock 'n' roll sneaks out."
~ Billy Sheppard
"Rock 'n Roll: The most brutal, ugly, desperate, vicious form of expression it has been my misfortune to hear."
~ Frank Sinatra
Goatskins don't seem to care about anything much but music. Their business plan don't make no sense. The influences they choose might be just none of the stuff we've heard before. Bunch of restless dudes who wound up for no damn reason in Los Angeles singing their souls at the Kibitz Room at Canters, where no A&R man dares to roam. There's nothing new under the sun. Don't tell the Goatskins.
I've talked to these nutty guys on the telephone from the bar in LA way out where I live in Ohio. Damn, but they were having fun on the phone from a gig. How long has it been you heard fun in music seemed unafraid of the dark. They make songs to confound the smart ass music industry playing fast and loose with all the cute little happy talk axioms of modern pop. Maybe they kick Goth where it hurts now and again with lines to "make Jesus cry." Fars I know, these guys aren't just doing that same old disrespectful thing to get the marketplace to grease their palm and make them famous. They are gainfully employed in other sectors of the industry, but maybe music is where they get holy and get off. If I get back to the glittering city of the angels, that Kibitz Room will be high on the list.
Okay, right now they have posted songs sound like they were recorded with a mic hanging way too close to the drumkit at a live gig. I can't review that music, cause I'm not good at guessing what the songs would sound like I could hear the words. Don't worry about that. All their posted songs are free for download and these dudes post more music than most indie labels with a heard of little bands in their roster. You can buy their music Snocap, or wait for what you want to be posted. They don't care about that. I have to make cracked comparisons to call a review finished, so I'll say they sound like surf punk Goth master Bela crossed with Jesus and Mary Chain on a low budget home recording. They will make you laugh, make you cry, and make you feel religious. That's silly and serious, cracked and constructed music that seems to have been written that day and arranged in the van on the way to the gig. How long has it been since you saw a bar band having fun with the cosmos? Listen live until you feel a little uncertain of the ground you walk on. Then have a drink.
SOME SONGS:
ORISIS RISING dips deep into that Egyptian myth of Isis. Dylan covered the story. Good to know that Orisis gets whittled up by his lover and reconstructs himself season after season. Yeah sure, there's something about seasons in the story, but as I guy I relate to the getting cut to pieces part, and the need for reconstruction. The posted lyric is a one liner "magus stone, smooth as runes, we danced naked by the light of the moon." This song is thrown together on the home recorder with patented Goatskins sloppy panache. Blue Cheer was better mic'd in the 60's, but never got near this psychedelic. The music repeats, and the chords are stuff you'd learn from the local music store in a once-a-week lesson. The story is expansive and damn cracked. Isis "crawls down out of the sky." I knew that girl. Fun while it lasted. Hurt like hell a little later.
TAR might have enough dark attitude to give Joy Division a slight chill. "I had a handful once but I gave it all away." This live recording deserves a better recording. Don't know the full lyric because I can't hear it clearly, but they got a damn good line sounds like the Velvets on a bad day. This song has the line about "make Jesus cry." Gotta hand it to them for passing on the shoegazing high from the tar that sticks to your soul. Sounds cool. Had to be there for the full effect.
GOODBYE borrows chords from Hendrix version of Dylan's "All Along The Watchtower," for a homespun stadium hair band rant. The Kibitz Room is a little place. That's echo on the mic. Big sound for the price of a beer. Hotcha! I don't know what they are shouting down, but it probably deserves a kick in the pants.
TEA BAG CRAZE is so paired down it sounds like The Violent Femmes rehearsing in a garage.
THIS BAND HAS LOTS AND LOTS OF SONGS. They suffer from the curse of Joyce Carol Oats. They write too damn fast. Suffice to say none of it sucks, and chances are you won't hear too many songs more than once or twice live. And they got the chaos and sex makes rock matter right down to the glint in the eye. What is pure rock 'n' roll attitude? For this band it may be the implied statement: "Don't sign us Mr. Tastemaker. We don't care!" Rock on!
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