dce (09/17/82)
It's surprising to find a rock group made up of "superstars" that can come out with an album that tops anything that their old groups did, but The Lords of the New Church certainly have. The group consists of Stiv Bators from The Dead Boys, Brian James from The Damned, Paul Tregunna from Sham 69, and Turner (I don't know who he was with), all from the early days of punk. The album is very political and somewhat anti-American, but is well executed. The songs are about everything from girls to war plus the hit "Question of Temperature". The sound borders on heavy metal, but with Stiv's sneering voice, it doesn't sound stupid, like most heavy bands around today. Another surprising thing about this album is that the hit is not the best song on the album. After buying too many albums with one good song and eight or nine horrible pieces, this one looks even better. (Poll question: Name an album that had one good song and the rest of the album is garbage. Mail to me.) As you can tell, I like this album. There is one thing I like better : The Lords live! Last Saturday, I saw these guys in concert. I usually hate to see bands perform, but this was different. The bass and drums were much more out front than on the album and the overall sound was fantastic. The band all dye their hair black and look like Keith Richards clones, but Keith never looked as drugged as these guys. The band was more exciting than most bands I've seen, with Stiv singing one moment and bouncing across the stage the next. Another great thing was Stiv's speeches about VD between songs: "Hey! Any of you got herpes?" and the Rodney Dangerfield Russian Roulette classic "We played a different kind last night. We passed around six girls. One had VD." See this band. Buy their record. Or don't. David Elliott unc!dce