Bo Diddley was Rock and Roll, simply put. Born in Mississippi and transplanted to Chicago’s Southside, Bo took the sound of Delta blues, the West African rhythms from church and added swagger, built his own fucking guitar when he couldn’t find any bad enough to suit him and straight birfed Rock. Love Me Tender your mom’s ass.

I’m gonna take one song as an example, for a few reasons. One, because this song is perfect in design, form and content. And secondly because I am busy right now. Who Do You Love? is THE song. Recorded in 1956, Who Do You Love? has all the elements required for a proper rebel song: sex, violence and death. This song, like many of Diddley’s songs, was a three minute hardcore boast. For this song to even be recorded in the mid 1950’s by a cat as black as Ellas Bates was dangerous, for it to be played for white audiences (snow bunnies) is nothing short of amazingly brave.

Diddley recorded a lot of music, not all of it awesome, but the importance, the sheer heaviness of the good outweighs the corn. If we can ignore Lou Reed’s slipup’s (pretty much everything since Velvet Underground) we can ignore Diddley’s. Bo Diddley, Mona, Who Do You Love?, Pills, Roadrunner… these are the songs we should be beaming into space to show how bad our planet is. May Bo Diddley Rest In Peace. He wore a cobra snake for a necktie. You know, metaphorically.

P’s Take: It was a fine weekend for Rock and Roll, beards, and aggressive females. The FSS saw the Murder City Devils 3 times in two days. So suck it.

Friday – Philadelphia is fuckin’ far away. From everywhere. But sister Michele, Uncle T and I drove straight from work all the way out to see the Devils on the coldest ass night of the year. We got there just in time for their first set and the place went fuckin’ bananas. I gotta say Philadelphia was down for some drinking and flailing that night. Also there were more beards being rocked there than at a Taliban conference. I’m just saying. The Devils were awesome and louder than hell. They even debuted a new song, something about the 7 deadly sins or something.  At 10:30 we were shooed out of the club so they could set up for the second set to begin at midnight. We got some food at the coldest bar and grill on earth and watched a catfight on the street corner to pass the time till the second set. It was awesome. The catfight was, the food was aight.

The Devils second set of the night, it must be said, was pretty much exactly the same as the first, just drunker and beardier. They played great definitely, but by this time I am exhausted and sober. A fight broke out toward the end of the show and contrary to form , I decided to break it up. It was between some drunk dude, his drunk girl and some guy who looked like John The Baptist. So I go in and take drunk guy off the Baptist and then drunk guy’s girl flanks me and starts going to town on Johnny, fists flying. So then I go to grab drunk girl and drunk guy starts lacing into the Baptist. Finally they are all dragged away from each other by the crowd and the whole time drunk girl is pointing to her eyes, giving the John the Baptist the finger with both hands, and then pointing at him. Eye fuck you, get it? Aint that clever? Awesome.

Saturday – So Fridays MCD marathon was in a dive, like it’s s’posed to be, Saturday’s was at the Nokia Theatre in New York. It looks like it’s from the future, beer cost like 10 dollars and the place just generally sucks ass. Also, whereas the Philly crowd were bearded (the women too) and rowdy the New York crowd were posing. I’m from round the way, so I don’t like to bash the home people but there was really a lot of too-cool-for-school posing motherfuckers there. I’m just saying.

The performance was awesome though, again. The Murder City Devils believe in Rock like some believe in the Jesus, and it shows. I dropped 2 bills in two days to see this band and if they played next month I’d do it again. They have never let me down.

Now back to catfights. So I’m standing there watching the show and right in front of me some drunk guy bumbles into this girl who in turn fucking FLOORS him and starts wailing on him while he’s on the ground. Again, I go in to help for some reason, and the girl starts explaining to me why this cat deserves the beating, evidently cause he “touched my bag”. But she didn’t need to explain, I was with her completely. Some people were born to Rock and Roll.

T’s Take: Remember that Mike Ness line about dreaming all week of a rock and roll weekend? That’s pretty much how this week went down. Three shows..two nights…following a work week and a blizzard??? Fuck yes, bring on the rock and roll. Went down like this…

Jet outta work, pick up P from the Passaic train station, fight parkway traffic to get to the little lady and head straight down to Philly. We literally walked into the venue 2 minutes before the Devils took the stage. Look I’m getting old. I’m not in the business much of flailing about at shows like I did fifteen years ago. I’m not saying I never dance anymore, just that it’s gotta be the right amount of rock and roll to get me out there. The Murder City Devils are such a band that I lose my shit any time I’m listening to them and live even more so. Within seconds I’m rushing the front, fist in the air, screaming at the top of my fucking lungs. The Philly crowd (unlike last years Seattle crowd) were no slouches. We all waited a long time for this. If you check the video we posted of the show someone yells out to the band before they began “you guys better not fuckin’ suck”. Like there was a chance.

During the first set I had no idea where anybody was nor did i care.  I looked for P a few times but his beard didn’t help.  As P was breaking up fights, I was making strange friends… err friends strangely.  Seriously if you’re reading this and you’re the “guy” hit me with an email and I’ll send you an FSS shirt gratis. Basically I clashed with some dude in the pit at one point and… man, if I tell you this you won’t fucking believe it… but I swear it’s true. Some fellow Murder City fan and I slammed into each other so hard and at such an odd angle that our key carabiners locked together and we were fused to each other at the waist like some sort of fucked up dancing rock and roll Siamese twin. We had to move to the side of the action for a good minute or two to figure out how in the fuck to cut each other loose. Fucking odd indeed. In between sets we hit up a nearby bar for some food and beer and then it was back to the venue for the midnight show. Spencer joked that they weren’t going to play Midnight Service at the Mutter Museum because it would have been too hokey (the Mutter Museum resides in Philly after all), but they played it later anyway.  Both Philly crowds were great as always but the first edged out the second for the mere fact that during the second set myself, my wife, and some dude with a Bukowski gravestone tattoo had to constantly and unsuccessfully ward off some drunk asshole that deserved the having the boot put to him hard style.  If you’re reading this and you’re the dude with the Buk tattoo… again… hit me with an email and you’ll have a shirt coming.

The following night we headed into Times Square, NYC for the last of the three shows. It was a little surreal seeing the enormous led billboard outside the Nokia with the crowned skull and crossed switchblade logo and all kinds of video of the band. But it was the punkest thing Times Square probably ever had on display, so as surreal as it was it was pretty fucking boss too. Saw a couple familiar faces from the Philly show. I had a feeling we weren’t the only ones going to all of them. Before Murder City took the stage I listened in on a conversation between a dude from Denmark and a dude from Connecticut. People had come far and wide for this one. I was a little drunk at this point but I’m pretty sure Connecticut was speaking as if he came just as far as Denmark.  If you’re reading this and you’re the dude from Connecticut stay there, don’t email me and forget the free shirt.  The Nokia held a shit load more people than the Philly venue and it was packed. The second the band started all hell broke loose. It was easily my favorite show of the three. I’m not sure that it was any better… performance wise they were all fucking great… but I went more apeshit at this one than the other two and that’s saying a lot so by default it was my favorite. My voice will be gone for the next couple days and I’m a little sore to be honest but man the Devils made my weekend.  Like P said if they came back again next weekend we’d be there.  They’re probably the only band around in the past couple decades that did the rock and roll they way it should be done.  If you don’t know, now you know.

Highlights from the shows included: Press Gang, Broken Glass, Rum To Whiskey, Johnny Thunders, 18 Wheels, Dancehall Music, I Want A Lot Now, Idle Hands, I Drink The Wine, Fields of Fire, and Bear Away.

My love affair with Seattle’s Big Business starts with my love affair with tattoos and then nachos. In that order. This past summer my tattooist mentioned them while I was getting some work done and I filed their name in my brain under “try and remember these guys when you’re out record shopping”. There are a lot of bands like this filed away in there. Then more recently they put out a new album titled “Mind The Drift”. I kept seeing press photos for the album where the band is wearing matching U.S. Flag bandannas staring at a glorious pile of nachos. Based on the glory of said nachos alone, I pushed their file to the front of my brain and a few months later remembered to seek them out. So unfortunately this review is about a half year late. But they just put out a music video for The Drift so it’s still culturally relevant says I.

So what should we know about Big Business before knowing if the album is worth your money? Well firstly they started as a 2-piece consisting of Coady Willis on drums (Murder City Devils) and Jared Warren on bass (ex-Karp). If you know the FSS you know a couple things about us. We hate pretentious garbage like Pitchfork and Polvo and we loves us some Rock and Roll especially in the form of the Murder City Devils (we’re seeing them do back to back shows in Philly and NYC this month). We also once saw the tail end of a Karp show at Maxwell’s some many years ago. I think there were seriously 5 people in attendance and much of that night is hazy if you’re picking up what I’m putting down. Anyway, after starting Big Business Jared and Coady became members of The Melvins. Playing with them on tour, opening for them as Big Business, and backing them on a couple records. In 2008 they added Toshi Kasai on guitar. And in the summer of 2009 they released the album in question.

“Mind The Drift” is fucking epic. Epic like “It’s it. What is it? It’s it. What is it? epic”. It’s demands being played loud with the bass turned way the fuck up. The low end on it is re-goddamn-diculous. It spins yarns of frontier life, age long battles between cats and mice, and streets overrun with nerds and C.H.U.D.s. Their sound is categorized as heavy metal, stoner metal, sludge metal, etc, but I hate labeling bands like Big Business as they generally defy categorization. They really are in a class unto themselves in many ways. At one point to promote the record they sold collectible ceramic plates with the bands picture on them. Who the hell else does this? It seems absurd and in many ways much of the imagery on the record is equally absurd. The liner notes contain various old postcards of state parks with the band cleverly inserted here and there dressed in trailblazing attire. But somehow it all makes sense if you look at it in the context that musically they are blazing new trails and forging new paths through unknown territory. When Warren preaches “you can’t draw a map with money” on The Drift it’s as much a statement on Lewis and Clark as it is on bands that spend great deals of cash on their sound and image all along playing it safe and boring. Big Business is no such band. They’re out there in the forest taking down buffalo with six shooters. Epic indeed.

If you don’t believe me or just want to hear it for yourself, they’re still streaming it on their website. Do yourself a favor and check it out. And if you’re anywhere near New York or Philly in February go see Coady set his drums on fire with the Murder City Devils. I’m not speaking metaphorically either. He’s been known to literally set them on fire during live performances.

Related articles: Midnight Service at the Mutter Museum, Murder City USA, Polvo – In Prism

You know who wasn’t playing dress up? Hasil Adkins. Hasil was born a greasy mentally ill rocker in the year of our Lord 1937 in the hills of West Virginia. He died in 2005 from complications of being run the fuck over by at all-terrain vehicle in the front yard of his home in the same hills of West Virginia. And from his entrance to his leisure vehicle induced exit Hasil Adkins was the very mother fuckin’ measure of a rocker, you hear?

Get anything by Hasil, anything, but the album I am talking about at present chronicles his earliest efforts. “Peanut Butter Rock And Roll” was pieced together by Norton Records from tapes Hasil made himself in his shack and sent off to various labels in hopes of a contract. None was forthcoming. The quality is shitty. Like Appalachian shack shitty. But it rocks something fucking ferocious. Hasil played guitar, slammed the drums and sang on each and every greasy track, the same way he would for the next near half-century. Adkins’ subject matter for all those decades of rocking ran from women, to junk food to dancing back to junk food. He was hyperactive, manic depressive, a mechanical savant and the greatest American hero.

So children, let us leave the dress up for Halloween and get down and Do The Slop.

So while I was steady wasting money on 80’s hairspray metal (yesterday I got a Cinderella song stuck in my head. Oh, Tom Keiffer, how I hope you found a girl tough enough for your love.) I was getting an education in Rock and Roll from old Stones LP’s.

Because really, fuck the Beatles and Elvis too, The Rolling Stones perfected the art. They started in smart Carnabie Street suits and 20 years later were dressed like homeless court jesters. Their founder had a tribe of kids from different women and drowned in his pool while simultaneously overdosing. That is dedication. They wrote songs and dedicated albums to Satan while Ronnie James Dio was still studying pharmacy. They held a concert so dangerous that guns were pulled, a guy got knifed to death and The Grateful Dead were so terrified they left in a helicopter. They didn’t just opt out, the Dead straight evacuated.

Cause that is what rock is about; random sex, violence and general badness. It’s not about clever lyrics or musicianship. Lets take musicianship as I mentioned it. Jagger was never a particularly good singer, I can never remember the drummer and bassist’s names for a reason and Keith Richards played the guitar like he had been taught by Chuck Berry but over the telephone. As lyricists, they were just good enough to hold you’re attention. What they did though, better than anyone, from their founding in the early sixties till their unfortunate demise in 1980, was create music for people to make bad decisions to. A fucking-up soundtrack.

While I am talking some unarguably true but completely unverifiable shit, I will list some highlights for whoever is reading this to check out, vis- a -vis the aforementioned.

- 1965’s “Out Of Our Head”. Best song is Playing With Fire. Is misogyny good? No. Does it make good music? Always.

-1967’s “Their Satanic Majesties Request”. Holy shit, what a bad album. Awesome title, awesome cover, but holy Christ, what a bad album. But, fuck All You Need Is Love, right? Right?

-1968’s “Beggars Banquet”. Great album all the way through. Sympathy For the Devil. and Stray Cat Blues, ‘cause of the misogyny aspect I mentioned earlier.

1970’s live “Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out”. There is so much morphine in the guitar sounds on this record you could get your teef did.

1970-1980. Pretty much any or all of it sounds like a seedy party.

Yeah so that sums up the Rolling Stones according to me. Had the entire band not died in a freak hovercraft disaster off the coast of Argentina in June of 1980, who knows what heights they may have reached. Ha, get it? Cause they sucked from there on out. Well, fuck you too.

Back to “In And Out Of Control” though. The best part about this album is how they are able to pay tribute to acts like The Ronette’s and Buddy Holly musically but lyrically take things in a completely different direction with songs about abusive relationships exploding in the streets (Bang!), overdosing (Last Dance), rape (Boys Who Rape Should All Be Destroyed), runaways committing suicide (Suicide), death (Oh, I Buried You Today), and sadistic women mad for violent men (Break Up Girls!). They’re a little bit like The Ramones in this sense (they even reference listening to Rockaway Beach at one point). These songs are either fucked up odes to all the worst parts of the 50s and 60s turning idealistic notions of the time on its head, or they’re a direct reference to the modern day sugar coated by the sweet sounds of the past. Either way it’s a hell of an engaging listen, total Rock and Roll, and well worth buying. It’s worth picking up for the songs Gone Forever, Breaking Into Cars and Heart of Stone alone. I picked up the vinyl and not only does it come with a download code but the MP3s have been specially mastered so they don’t sound like shit when you’re listening on the go. Not much more that you can ask for.

Poor Johnny. You taught yourself to play the best caveman guitar this side of Keith Richards, climbed up and out of Queens, New York, tortured yourself with drugs and drink and died under a table in New Orleans and became a punk Jesus. How many rebel kids have rocked t-shirts with your skinny sad face on them? How many leathers had your pins? How many people wanted and still want to die the same useless way you did? For Rock and Roll?

A lot. From The Dolls to Gang War to The Heartbreakers to his solo work with everyone from members of Thin Lizzy to Die Totenhosen(?), Thunders put out a lot of work and touched a lot of peoples lives. Unfortunately he is remembered now more for his chemical intake and his death then his work. Why? Because people are fucking stupid.

I picked up this tribute “I Only Wrote This Song For You” fully expecting it to be full of that type of drug revering, live fast die young bullshit, but it turns out to be the opposite. The songs on this disc are lovingly done by people who knew John Genzale, people like Arthur Kane, Patti Palladin, The Ramones, Wayne Kramer; people who worked with him, hung out with him, grew up with him, not people enamored with the Thunders image. They celebrate his life through these songs rather than his death. The standout song is done by Johansen, Thunders’ singer from the New York Dolls days. It sounds very much like Johansen is singing directly to his friend. I have listened to a lot of stuff over the years, but something about this collection is effecting, it’s a downer but a good one, sort of. Like a good wake. Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of weak songs on this album, some people just missed the mark, though they meant well. But, like Thunders said, you can’t throw your arms around a memory.

Why did you choose to carry on Bomp yourself?

It was never an issue or a choice, it’s just what I do and have always done. Greg was, of course, the creative genius, I never signed a band or wanted to, but I was always right there taking care of the daily business. Greg hadn’t been actively involved in the company for quite a while before his death, he was sick for a long time. Patrick (my husband and owner of ALIVE RECORDS) and I had been pretty much running things for years by the time of his death. Greg did sign some bands not long before he died, but he didn’t come into the office or have much to do with the actual day to day work, we would take care of all that for him. Of course I will not add any new bands to the label, that was Greg’s part of the business and I wouldn’t presume to add to his body of work, but Patrick and I work with what is already there, remastering and reissuing some of the existing titles. And I have always run the mail-order by myself, so nothing changed there.

Bomp! has gone through almost every aspect of the music business: magazine, label and distributor, how important was it that Bomp! have complete control over what it did and wanted to do?

Suzy and Greg (circa 1970)

Greg and I were both VERY independent, neither one of us wanted other people making decisions for us. That’s all the fun of what we do anyway, we come up with ideas and make them happen, or not, sometimes things fail miserably, but at least it was our own doing. Our brief association with the majors made us very hesitant to try it again. Patrick is the same way, we prefer to do it our way or not at all. There are inevitable conflicts when you are working with other companies or people; everyone has their own way of doing things. We like to work alone.

How has Bomp! managed to stay one step in front of the rest without having a “commercial” hit?

I’m not sure we STAYED one step in front of rest, but we were probably one step ahead to begin with! Greg was a terrible businessman in spite of his brilliance, an absolute failure at making money. (See my stories in the Bomp! books for a good laugh and the evidence!) He would come up with amazing ideas… the first rock and roll fanzine, the first indie label, the first distro for indie records, etc, etc. It’s a long list of “firsts”. But he couldn’t make the connections needed to make things happen, or focus on one thing for too long, always off to the next project. Money and talent have little to do with one another, it’s not unusual. Greg’s solution to our inability to have a hit record was to hire a staff of people with suits and ties; he figured they knew how to talk to the other people with suits and ties, a talent that we lacked. Unfortunately the “business manager” he hired was actually a failed insurance agent, whose main advice had to do with building shelves. Going bankrupt? Build some shelves! The advice didn’t really work out too well and it cost us a fortune. (Between the shelves AND his salary…) We eventually got rid of the staff of 12 and downsized Bomp!, our attempt to play with the big boys was all a huge waste of time and money. The closest thing we had to a “hit” nearly bankrupted us anyway, the staff had forced the initial sales, but the records came back later. (That was the Plimsouls record) Lesson learned, keep it small!

How important do you think rock and roll is to America ?

Not very. I wish I could say there was a huge market, or that there was about to be, but it’s always been a niche. Of course I’m talking about the style of rock and roll that we do, to define the term. But America is a big place, and I’m talking about percentages here, probably 99% of America doesn’t care one bit about rock and roll. On the other hand there is a very vocal and enthusiastic minority that is passionate about music. Labels like us will survive selling to that niche, it’s pretty stable. But I’ve seen some labels try to expand beyond the market and go right down the toilet.

Has Bomp! changed how it handles business now that we are in the digital age?

Absolutely, I can’t think of anything that’s the same as it was 10 years ago, or even last year really, it goes very fast. We have to constantly adapt to the changes in the ways of doing business. 10 years ago our catalogue was print, now it’s all on line. And we do a lot of digital sales now too, as most labels do. We’re entirely dependent on the computers. If the computers are down, the only thing we can do is maybe clean the warehouse or go home, there’s not one thing we do that isn’t all about the computer. I wouldn’t turn back the clock; I like it much better now. I look back on the pre-computer days and wonder how I did it. It seems insanely problematic. We are not inclined to think that the pre-computer era was “the good old days”, which I think a lot of people do. I love technology! Mike Stax found a GREAT quote from Greg, from back in the 70s; it’s an astonishingly accurate prediction of what actually came about. I didn’t make this up, this is printed in a magazine from 1979!

Greg Shaw

“Imagine 20 years from now, if every teenager could sit in his bedroom with a computer screen and terminal (and stereo speakers attached) and call up anything he wanted, from Billy Ward & the Dominoes to Ed Banger & the Nosebleeds-see what they looked like, read extracts from fanzines and historians who wrote about them, cross-referenced to other artists and sources, and above all to hear the music, and maybe even see film footage if any exists.” GREG SHAW

That shows you how far ahead of his time Greg was… he was waiting for the internet all along, and when it came along he jumped right on it.

Do you have any bands connected with Bomp! that were your personal favorites?

Sure, I have a ton of BOMP! stuff that I play all the time, too many to list really, and on a personal level I was very good friends with Stiv Bators, he was hilarious, we were good friends. And of course Nikki Corvette is a sweetie, and all the guys from the Nerves/Plimsouls are very nice. We are working with them now to put out unreleased material, just got a great live Nerves LP in and a Breakaways to follow soon. Iggy is fantastic, we’ve gotten to be good friends since Greg died. He’s been very nice to me. We’re working with him and James, maybe some new projects in the works there too.

What do you listen to around the office?

I have a few thousand tunes on our Ipod… a lot of the classics, Stones, Who, Beatles, Kinks, and the newer ALIVE stuff is a warehouse favorite…. half of my Ipod is the ALIVE label….. Thomas Function, Black Diamond Heavies, Henry’s Funeral Shoe, Black Keys. Yeah, I know, I’m prejudiced, but I really like the label, a classic sound with a modern twist.

How much influence do you think you have had on pop music since Bomp!’s inception?

That’s very hard to judge, I think Greg had a big influence of people with his writing and ideas. Whether Bomp! changed anything musically on a large scale, impossible to say. I’m sure Greg influenced the whole Nuggets type reissues, no doubt about that.

What is in the cards for Bomp as time goes on?

We plan to keep the mail order going, of course, and maybe another book or two. The newest book, “Bomp! – Born In the Garage”, will be out in a few weeks, check on bompstore.com for details. I think it’s important for me to put back into print the material from BOMP! magazine, there’s so much great stuff there. All the early writings of Lester Bangs and Ken Barnes and Greil Marcus, the true greats of rock journalism. And on the label side, the back catalogue is enormous and just keeping that in print is a huge job. I wont be bored!

What is it about vinyl?

People are very emotional about vinyl, they see it as being more “real” that cds. Some people think it sounds better, some people love looking at the covers, some people collect all the colors of vinyl, just for the fun of it. I love it because you can’t download it, we lose a lot of cd sales from file-sharing and the like. We do a lot of vinyl sales now, which is a surprise because we thought the natural progression would be for it to vanish. Far from it…

Bo Diddley or Chuck Berry?

Go, Johnnie go! Greg was a big fan of Chuck Berry too, one of our favorites.

Hookers - Casting The Runes: from The Battle Of Clontarf To The Gates Of Valhalla

Remember last week, when I made some purchases so I could stay in touch with the music buying public? You know, keep up with the kids? I am never doing that again. Never. As proof of my new dedication, this week Ima tell yall about Hookers.

Not the kind you meet out back of the Crown Motel on route 1&9 and pay in badly-forged 5 dollar bills, but the band from Kentucky. Yup Kentucky. I first heard of the band from a mix tape I was given once. The tape had exactly one good song on it, Kiss My Fuckin’ Ass from these Kentucky lunatics. I spent a good month tracking them down and bought pretty much all they ever put out, which was not a whole hell of a lot, mostly 7 inches from record labels like Devil Doll, Crypt and Sack O Shit.

This Double CD is more or less complete. It follows the band through their 7 stages with each’s various members. And it likewise follows the band’s development (if you wanna call it that) from loud crashing garage punk band to loud crashing garage metal band. It’s made up of equal parts badly-recorded studio tracks interspersed with Hammer Horror film lines and one which is, I think, of Jerry Lee Lewis threatening somebody with bodily harm and equally badly recorded live shit, complete with crowd taunts (“ya’ll are hardly worth my time” the singer yells at one point. That’s awesome.) But none of this shit makes any difference, just needs to be noted.

What matters is, this is the lowest-brow, most rocking shit you are likely to find. Imagine if Married With Children was a band, only Peg and Kelly were always topless and Al could play over-amped guitar like a madman. And Bud was dead. That’s what this bizness is like. It rocks; furiously, drunkenly, straight retardedly. Every song Hookers did make it clear exactly what they were about and I don’t suspect them of posing for a second. The lyrics are about fucking, drinking, smoking, also about the Devil and monsters or something. There is also a lot of confused-ass Celto-Norse mythology, like the title of the collection for example. What are they talking about? There are also a couple songs where they are gonna kick somebody’s ass it seems like, so everybody better watch it. None of it makes much sense and, as mentioned before, it was all recorded as though the band didn’t give a shit. Because I’m sure they did not. And you shouldn’t either.

Lyrics are important. Cleverness and audio integrity are real good. But albums that make you feel like you are 15 beers into what promises to be a bad-but-memorable night are fucking necessary.