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I
was gladly surprised to hear how The Whore Moans seems
to balance out their pop with their punk and even a bit
of hardcore into their rock and roll. Very well done. By
the way when I say pop and punk, don’t think pop punk,
that’s a tremendously bad word in my household. Plus
this band stirs clear from those mannerisms crafting
instead an album that will age gracefully in lieu of its
songwriting, energy and organic production.
Anyway,
Hello From the Radio Wasteland! starts and finishes off
rowdy, where hook-heavy raunchy garage rockers recall everything
from nuggets to several 60’s and 70’s underground and overlooked
bands. The raunchiness never recedes. To their advantage The
Whore Moans has two vocalists both of whom sound in charge of
exasperating the proceedings. Both have an edge, where one sings
the other screams but both are clearly as capable of delivering
heartfelt, nuanced and enraged vocalizations.
Better yet,
throughout The Whore Moans drops hook after hook. That’s their
pop quotient. This band’s ability to involve energetic melodies
and feed them off to the guitars. Nice touches abound, a cello
here and there in the spirited “Fingers and Martyrs”, claps on a
song, a lounge-fragment, and one understated ballad. All these
without ever breaking out of character. They even incorporate
The Ronettes’ “Be My Baby” drum beat and chorus to one of their
tunes. Outstanding. “No Soul” is a one note single. Tired,
longing and calmed. Basic. “Dead Man’s Drink” is festive like
the greatest bar song ever. The end is a race.
Hell From the
Radio Wasteland!
is a great record with a capital G. The downside? Clocking at
almost an hour this could have been trimmed of at least a couple
of tunes.
If all pop
music was this good the world would be a damn fine place to
live. If all hardcore had this much rock n’ roll there wouldn’t
be so much fluff in the subgenre’s steroids. If all rock and
roll was only this sticky all other genres would have died
painful deaths a long time ago.
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