ITEM!
Local podcast interviews loudmouth
scenester who hardly goes to shows anymore!
Local podcast interviews loudmouth
scenester who hardly goes to shows anymore!
listen to the show HERE
Friday, November 21, 2014
Friday, November 14, 2014
ON THE RECORD
Get Action 7" release
Supergroup.
The term is derived from the 1968 LP Super Session (Al
Kooper, Mike Bloomfield, and Stephen Stills) and is used to describe
a group of musicians who first hit it big elsewhere. Okay so maybe it doesn’t
accurately describe Get Action. I mean, really, how many ‘burque bands have ever hit it big besides The Shins?
The Eyeliners on the Warped circuit for a few years in the early aughts and The
Strawberry Zots for about three minutes (the length of their 1989 FM radio hit And You Drive Your Pretty Car ).
Chances are most of you haven’t seen the bands from which Get Action was formed so it may not seem so super to you after all. But that doesn’t mean these groups weren’t important in the local scene. That said, just suppose there was an accident, a fatal mishap during a Get Action show that electrocuted the band or something? A catalyst like frontman Wild Bill Bunting clambering up the outdoor electrical boxes during a Blackbird Buvette show a couple of years ago comes to mind. Such a calamity could wipe out a huge chunk of local Punk and Rock N’ Roll history! The moral is, better go see these old guys while you can. How old? Well, let’s just say I’ve known one of them since he underage and sneaking into Launchpad shows back in 1996. We’ll get back to him later.
Chances are most of you haven’t seen the bands from which Get Action was formed so it may not seem so super to you after all. But that doesn’t mean these groups weren’t important in the local scene. That said, just suppose there was an accident, a fatal mishap during a Get Action show that electrocuted the band or something? A catalyst like frontman Wild Bill Bunting clambering up the outdoor electrical boxes during a Blackbird Buvette show a couple of years ago comes to mind. Such a calamity could wipe out a huge chunk of local Punk and Rock N’ Roll history! The moral is, better go see these old guys while you can. How old? Well, let’s just say I’ve known one of them since he underage and sneaking into Launchpad shows back in 1996. We’ll get back to him later.
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| Get Action s/t 7” vinyl (Get Action Records, 2014) |
This
Friday is a perfect opportunity since it’s the debut of Get Action’s two-song 7”,
a rockin’ little slab of blue vinyl complete with obligatory download code for
all you youngsters and a free sticker for all you old punk rockers. The record
is a tad less unruly than their live act which is not an unusual thing to say for
many a release. The excitement of
playing before a crowd is lost in the studio (especially sans Bunting climbing
the walls) but to be fair, live recordings don’t always make the musical mark every
time either, technically speaking. Mastered by Frankie (The Angel Babies) Medina
at Tone Deaf Audio in Santa Fe, this record is a fine sonic compromise. The
catchy Tryin’ ( “to write this song /but
all I have to say /is whoa oh oh oh”) is backed with the harder edged, almost
sinister Bed Of Nails.
Bunting
has been screaming his way around noisy outfits like 10 Seconds to Lift Off and
Dynamite Kegs for over a decade. Using this band as an excuse, he returned to
Albuquerque in 2012 after a self-imposed exile in Las Cruces ( which has always
had a decent if underexposed punk scene). Conveniently, ex-Lift Off guitarist
Scott Brown had moved here a few years previous. Despite being familiar with
Bunting’s shenanigans, he was conned into jumping aboard with his snarly and snakey
Stratocaster leads.
Get
Action co-founder Ashley Floyd was channeling everyone from Dead Milkmen to The
Lords of the New Church when he formed the Gracchi in 2004 with (among others) ex-Scared of Chaka drummer Jeffrey Jones (a founding ex-member of Get Action by the way).
Floyd even proposed to a Gracchi bandmate/now-bride onstage, a class act. In
Get Action, he’s not nearly so classy but plays a mean rhythm guitar with a few
hot leads for good measure.
Bassman
Zac Webb is best known from the whammy glammy Foxx, sort of The Sweet covering ABBA. He’s also been in
the barely heard post-punk of The Phase and the neo-psych of Jealous Gods. Get
Action is the closest Webb has gotten to thrashy punk since his juvenile
delinquent band Fuck Taco Bell in the mid-90s -- not that he would care for me
to mention it but what are old pals for. Remember that Launchpad story above?
Right.
Joey
Gonzales has thumped for every type of band you can shake a drum stick at. The list could go on for
days. He’s the current stickman for Red Light Cameras and The Porter Draw but it’s his work in the
garage-psych Dirty Novels, poppunk Pan!c and the catchy heartache of Lousy Robot that is echoed here.
 |
| ERIC WILLIAMS ERICWPHOTO.COM |
So how
does this conglomeration add up? To some damn fine Raucous N’ Roll that will
raise your blood pressure reading by a good many points and I mean that in the
best possible way. Rumor has it that Burt’s Tiki Lounge renovated the stage (
moving it back to its previous Dingo Bar location) for the express purpose of
preventing Bunting from swinging from the lighting rig ever again. Rocking out
to Descendants or Gas Huffer, he’s been risking life and limb on skateboards
for years so I’m not so sure this will stop him.
Opening
act, Shitty and The Terribles are similar in the raucous department but closer in
tone to Boss Hog or Yeah Yeah Yeahs. No, the latter aren’t overrated. In fact
their overratedness is itself overrated, if you get my drift. Lead guitarist Terrible
Tripp is only involved in tasteful bands, like uhhh, Terri Schiavo Dance Party
and Bob Seger’s Electric Penis. His wailing leads reach a bit past garage
territory towards bands that haven’t yet been reverently resurrected by
hipsters but were of the sort championed by the old Creem magazine, like Alice
Cooper or Rush. With her best Johnny Ramone chops, Soni Reducer (The Phase, Deadtown Lovers, The Shamones) backs up Tripp while solid drummer Rudi Thornburgh
demonstrates his versatility because his real love is in the technobeats of his
other outfits Superpublic and Clocklife. But after years of DJing it’s vocalist
Bea Shitty who takes the spotlight in her first band, vogueing and doing the
Hully Gully all over the place.
Oh
and then there’s Austin’s OBN IIIs, chock full of anthemic 1980s muscle rock.
Their band persona is a little bit “bro” if you know what I mean. I can’t quite
see the tongue in cheek if there is any but put-on or not, there are some out
and out rockers in their repertoire. As well, listen for echoes of RadioBirdman. This brings us back full circle as those seminal Aussie rockers are
cited by Get Action as a founding influence. Nothing wrong with starting up
down under.
OBN IIIs , Get Action! , Shitty
& The Terribles
Friday
November 14, 2014
Burt’s
Tiki Lounge
313
Gold Ave SW
9pm
doors
$5
originally presented in weekly alibi in slightly different format
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