Better Late than Never - The U.S. Bombs!

By Jenifer Hanen

Barflies.net is debuting a new column this month:
Better Late than Never

Quite unfortunately the music business has become like the movie industry in that if a cd or band or song has not made it in a short period of time than it is shelved. In the movies, a flick has usually one weekend to make its debut and prove itself. In mainstream music, there is a window of time known as the "Six Week Push," for which a cd is made or broken.

Here at Barflies.net we have never been about the what is hot at this particular nano-second in time, in fact it is out mission to cover bands and artists that may never get noticed by the mainstream or to highlight artists that may be noticed for a moment but then dropped when the fad is over. Due to our releasing our magazine every two months, by the time we cover a band or a cd, it is usually well past the Six Week Push. But great music is not on marketing time line, great music or even spectacularily bad music can be much longer lasting. Think of many of your fave cds that you didn't even discover until a year or two or longer after they were released, and the fact that it is supposedly "old/so last year" did not take away from your enjoyment of the cd or band. In fact, it may have added to it, you may get things out of the cd that you wouldn't have when it was fresh out of the cd factory!

Thus... Better Late than Never: the column where we will highlight music that you ought to check out because it is very good or even great but more than a bit past the Six Week Push!

Jen Hanen, Editor, Barflies.net

****

U.S. Bombs - Back at the Laundrymat (Hellcat Records)

One of the best things about The U.S. Bombs is that they are either brilliant or an absolute train wreck, with very little in between. Of their five studio albums and one live album, I have loved two of them, been left cold by two, and just listened to the fifth. Live the band is always on fire, be it the fire of brilliance or the blazing of the wreck. Poetry or Politics or Madness or Addiction or Pain or Fervor... whatever you call it, the Bombs have it all, all of it.

"Back at the Laundromat" was released on Hellcat Records sometime in 2001, with a stripped down line-up of Duane Peters, Kerry Martinez, Wade Walston, and Chip Hanna. The CD is dedicated to guitarist Chuck Briggs who passed away in 2000 and to Faith Hanna.

Musically the CD is vintage Bombs, but the band has refined and further developed their take on the 'Spirit of '77' style old school punk rock. "Laundromat" features more vocal harmonies, layering of sound, and the weaving in and out of guitar solos with the patented Bombs rhythmic chunk. At their best the Bombs are fast but so rhythmically and melodically enticing that a belly dancer could do a whole routine to a song. That side of the band is present and accounted for, but the strength of "Laundromat" lies in the layering of sounds and guitar technique with the lyrics.

Lyrically, "Laundromat" tackles a marvelous mix of world politics, ravers, pizza, gigs, and more, but the emphasis is on war and politics. How prophetic of the band. If I had listened to the CD early last year, it would have been vintage Bombs in my mind. As we are on the verge of war of American aggression in the Middle East in late 2002, "Laundromat" has captured more than my mind, I find myself playing it over and over again singing out the lyrics in angered protest.

"Back at the Laundromat" gets ranked equally with "War Birth" as the best of the U.S. Bombs. I know that others will disagree with me, asserting "Garabaldi Guard" or "The World", but I suggest you go out and buy "Laundromat" and listen for yourself.

Jen gives "Back at the Laundromat" 5 out of 5 stars!