All The Madmen – ‘All The Madmen’ (Rum Bar Records)

All The Madmen – ‘All The Madmen’ (Rum Bar Records)

It’s been a while since we last reviewed a Rum Bar Records release, but All the Madmen simply couldn’t be ignored. encompassing a huge catalogue on one release (almost 40), when the virtual needle dropped on the magnificent Bowie Glam stomping ‘So Many Times’, I was transfixed. With a great mix, it was cancel everything I’m all in on the Madmen for the time being.

Vibrant, punchy, paying homage to an era of discovery and wonderment, yet keeping it real and relevant the songs popped and jumped out of my speakers with a joy of life and grabbed my undivided attention like all good records.

All The Madmen complete retrospective encompassing 3 full-length album releases: Ordinary Life / Twinstar Radio / Teenage American Style

If you love an artist and they have a profound impact on how you deliver your music, then why the hell not embrace it, Don’t spend your short time on this spinning rock denouncing or denying, embrace it and run with it – see where it takes you. Obviously don’t rip ’em off for parodying them, but emulate and be inspired, that’s always cool and that’s what is happening here. There is no avoiding the fact that singer Glen Meredith is a fan and shapes how he delivers the vocals, but there’s more to it than that; he’s not mimicking, he’s being himself. When the band get locked into the music, it’s a beautiful thing, all the glitzed-up sleaze of it.

There’s a hard edge going on, but also a keen eye on the pop melodies and mass appeal, which isn’t a bad thing. Sure, there’s a lot of material to get through, but it can also be indulged in manageable chunks. Some of the highlights would be the softer moments like ‘Teenage American Style’ and the anthemic ‘Ordinary Life’. Music is there to be enjoyed, and All The Madmen got the memo and delivered a thoroughly enjoyable bunch of tunes. Go on, dive in, you’ll like what you hear.

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Author: Dom Daley

Indonesian Junk ‘Darkness Calling’ (Rum Bar Records)

Indonesian Junk ‘Darkness Calling’ (Rum Bar Records)

Indonesian Junk return with a new EP of three originals and one cover. They hail from Wisconsin here in the United States and have put out a couple albums as well as past singles, a live album and an EP. This EP is not a bad place to get started if you want to get a taste of the band. Drawing inspiration from the likes of the Heartbreakers and those early bands from New York back on the 70’s with a healthy dollop of powerpop hooks, Indonesian Junk carves out their own identity to sound fresh and inspiring.

Lead track ‘When I Find You’ roars out of the speaker and finds Daniel James crooning over a cool guitar riff, and he then lays down a killer solo for good measure. This is straight forward rock designed to clear your head and celebrate life for a few minutes… assuming you are not the one he is going to beat up when he finds you. I’m always surprised more bands don’t cover early KISS songs with the excellent cover of ‘C’mon and Love Me’ sounding like they were the ones who wrote it with the attitude spilling out of James’ vocals throughout the song. Mike Mattner pounds the drums into submission, and Johnny Cyanide (bass) provides some excellent backing vocals. As the song fades out, the riff for ‘Detroit Rock City’ bubbles up for a moment and leaves me wishing the band had gone ahead and covered it too.

‘I Could Die’ opens with some nice work by Mattner to set up a midtempo song that features a slow subtle guitar riff. Unfortunately, this song lets the momentum of the first two tracks slip, and I have caught my mind wandering on this song each time I have played the EP. I think I would connect with it more in the context of an album’s worth of material. The band grab my attention back every time with the big swaggering riff and beat of ‘See the Light.’ My favorite song on the EP, this one channels all that is great with sleazy sounding rock and roll with James serving as a conduit for the likes of Thunders, Berry, and even some McCoy.

Indonesian Junk will hopefully get exposed to some new fans with this one as the EP represents a really cost effective way to start your collection if you are not already a fan. While it is not perfect, it does represent their sound really well overall with the band specializing in primal, punky, hook filled rock and roll, which their record label (Rum Bar) seem to have some innate ability to find and deliver to us.

‘Darkness Calling’ is available Here.

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Author: Gerald Stansbury