For a lot of garage rock fans, The Len Price 3 will need very little of an introduction. The trio have been cranking out guitar based sounds since the mid noughties, and are arguably Medway’s best known musical export after Wild Billy Childish. For the uninitiated, their 2007 debut ‘Chinese Burn’ provides the perfect place to jump into their catalogue. Its fifteen tracks show how the band – none of whom are actually called Len Price – are able to strike a perfect blend between high octane 60s inspired sounds and a sweaty musical fury. All the way from opener ‘Christian In The Desert’ – sounding like a wobbly but furious mix of The Kinks and The Hives – through the surf tinged ‘Viva Viva’, to the choppy ‘Chatham Town Spawns Devils’ where the band evoke the same kind of energy as The Jam tearing through the Larry Williams number ‘Slow Down’, the album rarely lets up. Since then, the band have continued to deliver retro tunes with a very high quality threshold.
Category Archives: Album & EP Reviews
BLESSED BLACK – Seasons Vol. 1
Stoner metal band Blessed Black released their first album ‘Beyond The Crimson Throne’ in January 2020, intending to take the underground metal scene by storm. As history has proved, that year’s arrival of a global pandemic and a total shutdown of the live scene meant that any plans had to be rethought. Despite a very tricky couple of years, that release’s commitment to a riff suggested great things ahead for the band, and this EP length follow up more than makes good on that early promise.
IMPELLITTERI – Grin & Bear It
Since Impellitteri’s 1988 release ‘Stand In Line’ had seen the band taking a little more of a commercial turn and achieved some success – especially in Japan – it probably would have been a good move for Chris to strike while the iron was hot and record a similar follow up. Since Graham Bonnet was clearly a big part of the album’s appeal, a quick successor to ‘Stand In Line’, again featuring the ex-Rainbow vocalist, could’ve been great. However, it would take Impellitteri four years to return to the studio, by which time Graham had moved on, and could be found making a huge noise with the short-lived/ill-fated Blackthorn.
ALICE COOPER – DaDa
At the tail end of the 1970s, Alice Cooper found himself battling some dark demons. Not just those from his own imagination, paraded nightly from the stage for the entertainment of a paying audience, but some much darker, very personal demons. Following the release of 1977’s ‘Lace & Whiskey’, an overworked Vincent Furnier had been all but consumed by his much-loved alter ego and had descended into a world of addiction that ended with him being hospitalised.
KURT BAKER – Rock ‘n’ Roll Club
Ever since the release of his ‘Brand New Beat’ album in 2012, Kurt Baker has been synonymous with a party-centric brand of power pop. Taking a huge influence from Joe Jackson, Shoes and a host of early 80s skinny tie wearers, he added his own voice to a classic sound on a run of enjoyable albums. Each new LP came with a certain expectation of something familiar, but that’s not to say there haven’t been a few musical surprises. 2018’s ‘Let’s Go Wild!’ showed off a more abrasive edge, increasing a few garage rock influences, and 2020’s ‘After Party’ – released mid-pandemic, making promotion more difficult – mixed the solid power pop fare with tunes that drew from New Romantic sources, and even dabbled with lounge jazz. ‘After Party’ wasn’t just Baker’s most adventurous album to date; it was also his best.
Over the following year, Kurt released a couple of stand alone digital singles; he collaborated with Italian power poppers Radio Days and US garage rockers Indonesian Junk; he played a pivotal role on the second K7s LP, and even released an excellent EP with Spanish punks Nuevo Catecismo Catolico. He might have been in danger of spreading himself too thinly by that point, but sessions for a new Kurt Baker Band album were also undertaken over the following year, and the resultant tunes – as featured on 2023’s ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Club’ – are very strong.