(FDH Records/Certified PR Records joint release LP)
'AZ238' flew under the radar when it was released last December but this posthumous release by one of the most exciting punkrock bands of the ’00s is a glorious swan song that you simply cannot afford to miss! The music on this album is so urgent & blistering that it sends shivers down my spine and makes me realise that 4 years after the band’s promising debut album on Jay Reatards’ Shattered Records, Tokyo Electron has released its magnus opus. Here’s what a guy from The Los Angeles Times wrote about this record: “Rousseau's wounded vocals and the band's brash instrumentation conspire to create an atmosphere of musical malaise and disenchantment that carry the album forward and aloft like desert thunderclouds threatening to douse the dry ground below.” I couldn’t have said it any better! First pressing of 500 copies almost gone so don’t waste precious time!
"I'll be back" - TOKYO ELECTRON
"AZ238" - TOKYO ELECTRON
*****
Steal My Mind – JOHN WESLEY COLEMAN III
(Certified Records LP)
Although I consider myself a big GOLDEN BOYS fan, I was really dissapointed by ‘Cash Flow’ John Wesley Coleman’s debut album from 2005. I wonder if anyone was interested in such a god-awful mishmash of poor songwriting and annoying experiments. Needless to say, I wasn’t really looking forward to Coleman’s second solo album but I am completely amazed at how good it turned out to be! The songwriting is really excellent this time and there are no irritating intermezzo’s. The first two songs have very repetitive lyrics but they just sound wonderful: good hooks and a great sound! Warren Zevons’ “Lawyers Guns & Money” sounds like a forgotten Crazy Horse gem and with songs like “Donkey Song”, Coleman proofs he’s one of the most interesting songwriters these days. It’s hard to pick highlights because there really aren’t any weak songs on ‘Steal My Mind’. When you flip over the record, you think it will all go downhill after so many great tunes but the opening song “Threw It Away” makes you realize that 'Steal My Mind' is a genuine masterpiece! The sleeve says that the record was recorded in the summer of 2009: “10 hours, eleven songs, 2 bottles of Bullet Bourbon, 100 beers, a carton of smokes, marijuana & stuff and Chinese food and good friends altogether to make this live shit!!!”. I am glad someone released this session because you can feel that there was magic in the air. Shoot me, call me a fanatic or whatever, but I think this is a perfect five star record! Essential!!!
"Donkey Song" - JOHN WESLEY COLEMAN III
"Steal My Mind" - JOHN WESLEY COLEMAN III
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