Blasters
-
American Music/Troublebound
published: 2 /
4 /
2012
Label:
Retroworld
Format: CD
Fantastic rock and roll on double CD reissue of 1980 first studio album and 2002 live album from hard-working and thrilling Californian act, the Blasters
Review
In the midst of the 1980s, film director Walter Hill needed a rock and roll band to put in his modern fable, 'Streets of Fire'. The scene required a band tear up the stage in a bar that was the epitome of a sleazy dive, populated by leather-jacketed, slick-haired, violent men, and women of a similar ilk. If you've seen that movie, you'll know the band chosen was the Blasters.
The Blasters do rock and roll. And they do it very well. Their 1980 first album – 'American Music', re-released now – distils this genre down to its essentials and then tops it up with a shot of rockabilly and another of blues. If the songs aren't about getting into trouble, it's a fair bet they are about women, failing that, getting into trouble over women.
They might not be winning any awards for musical innovation, but the Blasters do what they do with serious aplomb. By treating rock and roll with love but without reverence they manage to make what should seem tired and predictable exciting again. This might be only rock and roll, but it is glorious.
To really get the flavour of the Blasters though, the listener should turn to the second half of this two-album set. The 2002 live album 'Trouble Bound' builds on 'American Music', taking many of the songs from that and a goodly sprinkling of extra tunes, and instils in them an even greater sense of urgency.
If someone today again needed to film a bar scene with a band that embodied all that rock and roll should be, it is unlikely they could do better than look to the Blasters.
Track Listing:-
1
American Music
2
Real Rock
3
Barefoot Rock
4
I Don't Want to
5
Marie Marie
6
I Wish You Would
7
She Ain't Got The Beat
8
Flattop
9
Crazy Baby
10
Never No More
11
Buzz
12
She's Gone Away
13
Barn Burning
14
21 days
15
Love 24 Hours
16
I Fell In Love
17
So Glad
18
Ashamed
19
Lone Wolf
20
Red Rose
21
Trouble Bound
22
Long White Cadillac
23
Cryin
24
I'm Shakin
25
Blue Shadows
26
Help You Dream
27
Common Man
28
Hollywood
29
Too Tired
30
I Wish You Would
31
Sadies Back In Town
32
Dark Night
33
So Long baby Goodbye
34
American Music
35
One Bad Stud
36
Marie Marie
Band Links:-
https://www.facebook.com/the-Blasters-
http://theblasters.com/
Label Links:-
http://www.floatingworldrecords.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/floating.worl
https://twitter.com/floatingwrecord