Degenerate Jim – “Viral Tracks”
Well, I got this recording in an e-mail from Jimmy West, Jr. A fellow I’ve had the pleasure to meet and him, most likely, the displeasure of meeting me. You see, I’m unfortunately, a rather unsavory sort.
After sanitizing my hands, putting on my face mask and prophylactic (over my nose, of course). I was surprised to see it wasn’t a release from The Degenerates Of Punk, a project, I know he’s been involved with.
Nor was it a star-studded cover songs compilation of a tribute to The Spice Girls. Which is, unfortunately, what I expectantly hope to receive in every e-mail I open.
(Some day, some day, I wistfully tell myself).
But No!- This is by Degenerate Jim. And I feel honored that this band, this recording, has obviously been named after me.
Yes, I am a degenerate and though my given, legal name is Slimedog- my friends and family have always called me Jim or Jimmy (Jimmy being what the characters in the movie “Boyz In The Hood” called prophylactics).
“Let me put some jimmies on your ice cream cone,” some trollop once salaciously suggested to me years ago, in a seedy nightclub I was working as a musician.
But forget that- put that thought out of your mind. Let me lay a heaping, helping, hunk of hot mama, hot sauce tracks on your hell livin’, lascivious, liquored up lips and ears.
This recording, if you allow me to slip into coherency for a moment, is a great amalgam of punk, shockabilly, ska, Oi and classic rock- and whatever else the cat done drung in.
This is one of the best recordings I’ve heard this year and will probably one of the best I will hear all year.
“Welcome To The World” begins very atmospherically with a propulsive beat and a simple, but effective, guitar chiming in. The vocals are growly, hardcore like, while the guitar spirals sonically above the churning, driving rhythm. This song is like Billy Idol’s “Dancing With Myself” but taken to the ninth degree or maybe, the ninth degree of Hell. This song packs a solid wallop of energy, passion, desire, joy, belief and substance and is my ’round about way of saying, this is a fucking great song.
“Heartache” starts out like a potent ska/punk tune- much like Madness of The Specials played. But then there’s an awesome instrumental interlude that is dissonant and jarring, spreading a bit of angst against the previous proceedings. This song is punk/ska but with a monkey wrench thrown into the works and a simple, but effective burbling, guitar solo that helps make this song so wonderful as a whole.
“State Of Decay” is yelped in unison along to a double time country beat that decimates the speed limit while the guitars drone and the vocals growl, incinerating and desecrating the scenery. This song is like an anger packed anvil dropped upon the center of your brain. And as painful as that sounds, this tune sounds like a pure, passionate, positive, pulchritude of bliss.
“Last Note From Hope” comes blaring out, passionately, in an energetic, alternative rock sort of way. The vocals are low and menacing with classic guitar chord riffing that rocks hard, on a kick ass groove. This song sounds like Reverend Horton Heat collaborating with Rob Zombie. And for me, that’s a mighty good thing to feel or imagine. Oh, there’s some amazing guitar served up here, also.
With some stutterin’, slammin’ guitar chords that make me think of the Circle Jerks or maybe Nirvana, but then, too- Paul Revere & The Raiders- Hey, they all sound pretty good to me. “On The Way Back Home” barrels through with a barrage of Oi like vocals accompanied by shout along group vocals. This song envisions a collaboration between American sixties rock, seventies punk, eighties Oi, nineties alternative and succeeds magnificently.
And all that stuff about me being a degenerate? You know, I’m only fooling? Definition: having lost the physical, mental or moral qualities considered normal and desirable. And right next to this definition on the internet- they have a photo of me.
So strike that!
As the blues song goes, “If the shoe fits? Wear it!” But I’m not foolin’ when I say root-toot-tootin’, a wham bam, shake a tailfeather, baby. Riding a unicycle backwards with my hair on fire, ring the bell, win the prize, here’s your stuffed teddy bear- that this is a wonderful recording.
And viral? Well, that relates to viruses and also something that is circulated rapidly and widely received on the internet.
Well, yeah this release is infectiously good and should spread like wildfires.
This is one of the best recordings I’ve heard this year and will probably be one of the best I will hear all year.
Seems I’ve read that somewhere before?
(Slimedog)
