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Rucker's world
Crash and Burn’s new deal
BY CHRIS RUCKER
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Right now, the Boston straight-edge band Righteous Jams own the hardcore scene. Their latest addition is guitarist Elgin James (formerly of Wrecking Crew, 454 Big Block, and Jaded Salingers), who joins a bunch of vets: singer Joey C, Cooch (ex–Close Call), and drummer Dance Floor Justin, who might be the second coming of Hazen Street/Cro-Mags legend Mackie. These dudes will knock you out in one listen. And they’ve got friends in high places. Chad Gilbert, the guitarist for New Found Glory and Hazen Street (as well as, back in the day, the singer for Shai Halud), put out the Jams’ Rage of Discipline CD on his Broken Sounds label, and he hopes to produce recordings by the Jams and a solo Elgin James this winter. You can also pick up the Rage of Discipline vinyl from Lockin’ Out Records, the label run by Roxbury hardcore dudes Mental. Breaking news: Far from Finished sign to Island. According to their Web site, the band formed in New York and moved to Boston, where they picked up original Street Dogs guitarist Rob Guidotti. At last report, FFF had been recording a debut album at the Outpost for the hardcore label GMM, with the Ducky Boys’ Mark Lind guesting on bass. No word yet on whether Lind made the major-label album. Meanwhile, the Street Dogs have signed to DRT Entertainment, where they join a Surreal Life–worthy roster that includes Lit, Seven Mary Three, Clutch, and GWAR. A teaser EP, Tales of Mass Deception, is out now featuring two tracks from a new album, Back to the World, that’s due in January. Hope Conspiracy singer Kevin Baker and former Give Up the Ghost guitarist Tim Bomb’s new punk-rock-and-roll band, Bars, have hooked up with the esteemed hardcore label Equal Vision; recorded with Dropkick Murphys producer Jim Siegel at the Outpost, their debut, Introducing . . . , is due October 19. Check out mp3s at thebarsrock.com. After putting out albums on Traktor7 and Rodent Popsicle, Crash and Burn have ditched the Southern-rock stuff for heavier and faster thrash, and now the band have signed to Thorp Records. This Toledo-based label is home to North Side Kings (whose singer is now famous for punching out Glenn Danzig while the video cameras were rolling) and is also the American home to Bionic, Canada’s every-bit-as-good but slept-on answer to Queens of the Stone Age. C&B join a host of home-town friends who’ve recently joined the Thorp ranks: the label put out Blood for Blood’s Serenity earlier this year, it’ll release the Ducky Boys’ Three Chords and the Truth in November, and look for a Slapshot disc to drop in early 2005. According to Thorp owner Andy King, the Lind brothers — B4B’s Rob and the Ducky Boys’ Mark — are set to guest on the Crash and Burn disc. And King, a veteran of Relapse Records and Lumberjack Distro, says Thorp’s Boston signing binge isn’t over: he also has his eyes on a certain local Budweiser-swilling drunk-punk institution. Crash and Burn play Blackout Bar at the Paradise Lounge this Wednesday, October 13, where the guest DJ will be Dropkick Murphys’ Matt Kelly. Another label that’s gone on a Boston signing binge is Bomp!, the legendary West Coast garage-punk label that’s home to about a zillion official-bootleg albums by the Stooges, the Dead Boys, and many more. It put out the Coffin Lids album earlier this year, and now it’s signed both the Konks (Yukki Gipe: represent!) and the Turpentine Brothers (Tara McManus from Mr. Airplane man and Justin Hubbard from Kings of Nuthin’, now a trio with Zack Brines on organ). Turp Bros’ We Don’t Care About the Good Times is out on Bomp!’s Alive imprint in January. Bomp proper is hyping Konks for "early 2005." Out now: a new 45-track Vagrant Records comp, In Honor: A Compilation To Beat Cancer, includes new songs by home-town folk Avoid One Thing, Big D and the Kids’ Table, and Kicked in the Head plus hype-man intros by Bosstone/Kimmel host Dicky Barrett. And Hellcat’s Give ’Em the Boot IV features an unreleased DK Murphys "cover" of unpublished Woody Guthrie lyrics ("I’m Shipping Up to Boston") as well as songs from the Unseen, Ducky Boys, and Westbound Train, who might be the only good Boston ska band left.
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