After playing in various other bands for ten years in the La Puente California area, Mr. Suicide and Harley ventured off on their own to get back to their punk roots and start over with nothing but the guitar and drums with their latest project Rock N Roll Suicides. I love this kind of setup, the way a duo pushes themselves live, the relationship between both members in the band better be solid because there's no one else you're going to hang out with or record or play through shitty venues with. It's the purest form of rock, distilled down to the most basic elements, noise and rhythm and Rock N Roll Suicides are working in a long line of punk minimalists with a sound bigger than the two of them.
A rough, gritty electric kicks off A-Side's "Born in the Wrong Era" creaking in with a scrape of the strings and spazzy drums with a great back and forth between the two of them from the get go, messing with the timings and locking into that duo mind meld. Reminding me a lot of The Hussy with Rudy Suicide on guitar and vocals and Harley Kaos on drums, bashing away on an all cymbal kit and Rudy's got a distortion on the vocal. This even goes back to Motorhead with it's fast 4/4 that takes it's moment and ends in feedback, fast with a bluesy Cramps style. I could easily see these two in one of those chopped up, matte black hot rods in a constant state of being worked on with flames shooting out of the front when they step on the gas. Maybe it's the sound of all that space that's going on here. Space, the beach and HEAT. "What a waste" comes out with fast hyper punk and when the both of them get on this mic, it's like Heather and Bobby's midwest bluesy garage sound and Rock n Roll Suicides are squarely in the punk camp and their west coast dirty grunge sound. More aggressive and maybe it's the low end of this guitar that's sort of going metal, delving into the feedback and the screeching chords with the same amount of bashing. They don't just rely on jittery punk sound though, this one stops at random points really interrupting the head banging deliberately, bringing crafty equations to their thick garage party with timing that could only exist between two people playing any length of time together this loud and fast.
B-Side "I Live Blind" come on that stabndard blues bar sound but a little drunker and rowdy, more melodies and those starts and stops are still here but it's almost performed live, the loose kit attack and slippery cuts, scratchy guitar swaying back and forth on that long walk home. Sounds like they're taking a load off and having a few too many, the same way I write about records. Repeated scaled riffs with warm distortion, coming together like a rock and roll tough party with sunglasses and leather in the desert. Why is that my go to for this West coast sound? The toughest loners carve out an existence in the desert. There's nothing around to fall back on but this sound.
Get this from Wolf on A Bridge Records or contact these guys at their facebook page.
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