The Groovie Ghoulies - Flying Saucer Rock'n'Roll!

 

This crazy Ghoulies CD compiles early (1988/1989) Ghoulies 45's and cassettes (back in their original days, not their hipster re-emergence!), with Kepi on guitar, Eric on bass and "Tom Tom 3000" on drums, as well as a 5 piece version of the band - back when I first saw them gigging in local LA dives.

As might be expected, the fidelity is kinda low, but the energy'n'wildness is there, with the Ghoulies sound already happenin' in a hip way. Covers like the opening, title number swing like a 50's number should, "Blood Beach" sounds like early Misfits, while "Day In Day Out" is pure Kepi-pop, followed by a Ramones-y take on the Neil Diamond/Monkees' pop masterpiece, "Look Out (Here Comes Tomorrow)", complete with shouted "heys!".

Kepi creates doomsday-pop in the mid-tempo "Armageddon 2000", "We Go So Good Together" is more 60's influenced bubblegum through the filter of 70's punk rock, and they rev up the Stones' "2000 Man" for the modern age (although it was still the 20th Century when this was recorded!). There's a terrific take on the 60's Neil Diamond/Herman's Hermits number, "Don't Go Out Into the Rain", "Dead End" sounds like early Red Cross/Redd Kross, the Stones' "Child of the Moon" is given a punk-psych-pop treatment, and once again Neil Diamond is featured in a cross-breed take on "Kentucky Woman" - mixing all of the versions, including Deep Purple's! There's a kinda true-to-the-original, albeit stripped down, take on Sonny Bono's "Laugh At Me", definitely taken from Sonny's version, not Mott the Hoople's, right down to the opening monologue! Billy Bragg's "A New England" closes with some damn nice pop melodies.

As I said, this is all pretty low-fi and primitive, but then, so is rock'n'roll - don't let that deter you! Once again, artist supreme Tom Neely contributes the cover and insert art, as only he can. Great stuff!