Skip to main content

1. Maybe The Wheel Doesn't Need Re-Inventing: The Greatness of The Venus Flytraps

Dig them up on Bandcamp



From Cleveland comes The Venus Flytraps... and, y'know? There's gonna be tropes and sounds and vibes you've undoubtedly seen and heard and felt before. From horror punk chords to b-movie cult ethos and imagery, that familiarity is bound to register with you the moment the glorious Flytraps show up in your orbit. But they're a delightful satellite destined for endless trips around garage rock's ozone layer and well worth your digital currency... we respect the hustle here on Rock N' Roll, Motherfucker and The Venus Flytraps are puttin' out RECORDS, Baby. They seem prolific and eager to be heard so let's discuss today's entry in the ongoing library of bands you need to be hearing:

Night of The Venus Flytraps is an incredible entry-level record to the wild world of the V.F.s' (as I hope they don't mind me calling them here), 11 solid tracks- ok, one of them is less than a minute long but it's not out-of-place and retails the killer not filler vibe- and, besides the aforementioned familiar but cool elements of pulp fiction and old horror film trappings there's solid shit here- choruses both accessible and catchy ('Cherry Slush'), really great mid-tempo punk blues torch songs with harmonica, natch ('Caught in Your Web') and a bunch of other tracks that really reinforce the notion that The Venus Flytraps are undoubtedly a really fucking great live band. (I haven't seen them- yet- so the fact that their material lends itself to this thought again solidifies that this is a good collection of songs.)

"A cornucopia of sex and horror" is how The V.F.s' describe themselves online and that sounds about right. These are tracks interlaced with lust and longing, perfumed with the musk of a Hammer Horror film and painted over with pure garage rock intensity. We wouldn't cover this band if they weren't fuckin' aces. They are. If they had only out out this one long-player, The Venus Flytraps would be worth hearing. As it is, they've got a wealth of recordings online. Seek them out- they're Rock N' Roll, Motherfucker.

- Two-Dimensional Godhead, 2019



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2. Mr. Rhythm Has Died But Andre Williams Is Forever (Andre Williams 1936-2019)

Get Greasy


In a dire possibility of terrible omens, the very day that this site has launched has word trickled in that R&B legend Andre Williams passed away yesterday, Sunday March 17th, 2019 at the age of 82.

If you don't know Andre Williams then it's a severe understatement to say that you should. Or at least have a passing familiarity with his vast body of work and significant influence, an influence which stretches from Soul to R&B to Rap to Punk. This is a man with dual nicknames of "Mr. Rhythm" and "The Black Godfather" and who- at the very least!- co-wrote "Shake A Tail Feather" therefore establishing his complete and utter Rock N' Roll bad-assery for all time.

Of course, there's much more to Andre Williams then those passing mentions. The man himself was born in Alabama on November 1st, 1936 and largely raised in poverty by his Aunts. As a teenager he left Alabama and landed in Michigan and eventually became the lead singer…
Post a Comment
Read more

3. Davy Jones Invented Punk Bass Before Punk: Spotlighting The Purest Monkees Album Ever

Davy Was Sid Before Sid Was


Music snobs and Monkees aficionados alike often cite the made-for-tv group's "Headquarters" as the first and most 'real' Monkees record and they're not wrong. Technically. That album was the first one created by The Monkees themselves after loosening the corporate mandated chains snapped upon them by Don Kirshner and the suits at Screen Gems. That saga, genuinely interesting and unprecedented, has been covered at length on a variety of sites and by The Monkees themselves in interviews over the years so we don't need to go into that today. As it is, we're writing about the purest and rawest Monkees album both in terms of performance and in terms of Monkees musical participation: The Monkees Live 1967, which wasn't released until 1987 at the height of MonkeesMania Wave 2.


Some context (even though we promised we wouldn't go into it): After two widely successful albums boosted by the success of the television show, The…
Post a Comment
Read more