Sea Hags – ‘Dead And Gone’ (Liberation Hall)

Sea Hags – ‘Dead And Gone’ (Liberation Hall)

Not sure what catagory the Sea Hags belonged in back in the day they were lazily lumped in with the glam rock brigade but this band of brothers never really belonged in with that lot and had much more to do with the darker side of early Aerosmith and the likes of the MC5 and Stooges to my ears and more power to them. Only surviving for one album, and years later, a few semi-official demo releases crept out into the bargain bins of the cool record stores around the globe, but this latest offering is ten tracks of prime grade sleazy loud rock n roll.

Famed for having Kirk Hammett play on their demos and a run of live shows supporting some of the finest punk bands crawling the circuit at the time, The Sea Hags were a lean, mean rockin’ machine, and this live, rough and ready set will attest that to be the case. So there’s no ‘Half The Way Valley’ or explosive ‘Bumbed Creek’, but there is a sleazy ‘Doghouse’ and brain-busting ‘Back To The Grind’. On another day, this band coulda shoulda…you know the drill. Rock’ n roll is littered with bands we all think should have been huge had it not been for Ego, Drugs, Drink, women, death, or all of the aforementioned well Sea Hags fit that bill perfectly.

On September 3, Sea Hags stepped in front of an audience of 60 enthusiastic fans at CD Studios. It’s this live demo recording that is now making its official debut on CD & digital. ‘Dead & Gone‘ captures Sea Hags delivering a type of sleaze rock that would soon be highly bankable on Hollywood’s Sunset Strip. Opener ‘Huntin’ for Dad’ with Yocom’s snarling vocals, followed by additional newly-discovered nuggets like the swaggering ‘Happy Hours with You’, reminds me of the swagger the Heartbreakers once had complete with howling feedback and gang vocals and the grind of ‘Dead and Gone’, it’s well worth investing in for fans of that album.
 
Despite its low budget, the demo served its purpose. Sea Hags were signed to Chrysalis Records in December 1987. But at the label’s insistence, Langston would be replaced, and a second guitarist was added. The original trio was defunct as Sea Hags entered the studio with producer Mike Clink (Guns N’ Roses’ Appetite for Destruction) to record their eponymous debut album. That album would include new versions of “Doghouse” and “Back to the Grind,” two tracks which appear in earlier versions on ‘Dead & Gone‘ but alas not here.  The title track is a belter, as is the Perry and Hamilton groove of ‘Chicken Boys’. Man, the groove of ‘Love Kills’ is still a pulse increasing thang and I might not have heard it in 30 years but boy is it a killer tune with a great vocal.
 
Within ten months of the release of the Sea Hags’ major label debut, the band had imploded, cracks became casms with over 300 shows done, and the lure of the big major label had taken hold.
 
Rest in Peace, Sea Hags, for you left a great looking corpse and one and done of what could and should have been. Take a listen, raise a glass and turn it up, ladies and gentlemen, the Sea Hags.  

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The Heat Inc. Release ‘Raptors’ for a debut single

The Heat Inc. Release ‘Raptors’ for a debut single
Armed with a venomous swagger The Heat Inc. release their debut single ‘Raptors’, a caustic slice of vitriolic rock’n’roll through Melted Dino Records.
 
On this scorching debut, The Heat Inc. have delivered a visceral thrill, with Alain Johannes (Queens of the Stone Age) hailing ‘Raptors’ as “a perfect rock song.”.
 
Describing themselves as a “Rock and Roll band”, The Heat Inc. recorded ‘Raptors’ in the RYP Recordings Studio in North West London, with Michael Smith (Elvis Costello) producing.

 

“So when I say I know rock ’n’ roll when I hear it, you best believe I know rock ’n’ roll when I hear it—and The Heat Inc. are good old-fashioned rock ’n’ roll, just like mother used to hate. You might have a good idea of how great The Heat Inc. sound—but don’t bother because The Heat Inc. are so cool they defy definition. There’s all kinds of heat. There’s the summer hot heat that’ll drive you crazy. There’s the in-ring heel heat that’ll get a wrestler over. And there’s the relentless hard heat that’ll track you down until you’re trapped. But ain’t none of them can compare to The Heat Inc you’re about to hear—and that’s not hyperbole, that’s a fact. Who you gonna believe, me or your own ears?”  exclaims Jeffrey Morgan – Creem journalist and biographer of Alice Cooper and Iggy & The Stooges.
 
The Heat Inc. is the suavest new band around and enough to make most God-fearing rockin’ rollers believe in miracles.
 
To purchase Raptors go to Bandcamp or Stream ‘Raptors’  Here
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Introducing: Van Dammes

Introducing: Van Dammes
Van Dammes, the garage punk miracle from Helsinki, just released a new music video for their guaranteed summer hit ‘Tax Free World’. The song, blessed with a killer chorus, is from their fourth record ‘Risky Business’. They might be a big noise outta Helsinki but they’re a new one on us here at RPM and they open our new feature ‘Introducing’. We loved the song and they had a video so we thought it deserved an introduction.

 

In the video, the band keeps rocking in the (tax) free world when it was still possible. The video features footage filmed in the band’s record label’s annual summer camp in the Canary Islands.
Also, Van Dammes have ended up as a victim of the coronavirus outbreak and needed to cancel their European tour, including a performance at the opening of the European football championship in Copenhagen. New dates are fortunately already planned for 2021.
The song and the whole record is released by German Rockstar Records,  ‘Risky Business’ came out at the beginning of 2019 and features six tracks including the one featured in the video above. According to the band’s statement, ”Tax-Free World’ is the best music that the Nordic countries can produce at the moment”. Who are we to disagree?
The band is a four-piece – Ilkka Hildén (bass guitar), Markus Kujawa (vocals, synth), Jussi Roine (drums), Juho Talja (vocals, guitar) and they play organ fueled snotty garage punk if you’re a fan of records put out by the likes of No Front Teeth then these might just be for you.  Go check em out and tell em RPM sent you.
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