Genre
rock
Publisher
Epic Records
External Links
- Official Website
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It turns out that the post-punk era has yet to be fully excavated and reanimated for the new millennium. Sure the touchstones like The Cure, Gang of Four, Wire, and Joy Division have all been resurrected so that a new band can borrow (read: steal) something from them - be it their image, sound, or riffs. And as the second and third wave of these bands stuck in a permanent 1979 come around, its beginning to feel like there's little left from that period for a new band to choose from. But, even some of the more unlikely of sources can serve as inspiration for up and coming young musicians, providing them with the spark needed for a new sound - or in the case of Liverpool's The Dead 60s, an entire career.
Remember when The Clash discovered the sounds of Jamaica and decided that dub was the music of the future? When they started to work echoed drums and spacey sound effects into their otherwise straight forward pop songs? You should, because The Dead 60's sure do and spend the entirety of their self-titled debut making sure that you know just how much. Considering how many bands have milked Joe Strummer and company's work dry over the past decade (Tim Armstrong, I'm looking at you), it is somewhat surprising that this aspect of the band's sound made it so long without being explored and reinterpreted. Yeah, there' s been quite a few attempts at dub-influenced punk and reggae since The Clash, but in this case we are quite clearly dealing with The Dead 60s doing The Clash doing dub-tinged punk.
By the end of the first track and lead single, "Riot Radio," it appears to be a pretty good choice for inspiration. The staccato guitar riff and driving beat make the song easy to dance to, while the echoed vocals and spacey background effects keep it distinctly different from other recent post-punk inspired tracks. Though it's unlikely to clear the floor between Franz Ferdinand and Maximo Park during your local club's "indie night." Even lead singer Matt McManamon's Strummer channeling "yow-ow-ow-OW" yell before the brief guitar solo can be forgiven, since the rest of the song keeps your ass shaking so thoroughly. It's a great song to open the album and a wonderful first trick for the band to pull from their arsenal, unfortunately it is quickly revealed to be their only one.
The Dead 60s spend the next twelve tracks tweaking and twisting the formula established on "Riot Radio," but said tweaking often consists of little more than speeding up or slowing down the tempo and throwing in an organ or police siren. The band has clearly figured out how to churn out a catchy two and a half minute pop song, but that's not enough to build an entire album around. By the fourth or fifth track the formula becomes fairly obvious and the album slips into a monotonous funk that it never really recovers from. The vaguely political song titles, coupled with the numerous samples of warning sirens and allusions to the government, make you want to believe that there's some underlying message to the music - but it all adds up to smoke and mirrors meant to keep your attention away from the repetitive music beneath. Occasionally something pops up out of the mire and lodges in your brain, the Undertones inspired teenage angst of "Horizontal," or the compressed drum effects on "The Last Resort" both come to mind, but these moments are too rare and too brief to leave any sort of lasting impression.
Which is exactly what ends up separating The Dead 60s from the other, more successful of the recent post-punk inspired groups - the ability to make any sort of an impression beyond a lead single. Even repeated listens reveal nothing new from this album, leaving you with the feeling that you've wasted the last thirty-five minutes of your life. No matter how much they may try to convince you otherwise, the only riot The Dead 60s are going to start is the rush of disappointed listeners sending this album straight to the used bin.
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