Mother's Children - "Dance To The Rock'n'Roll Band" (7" Pink marbled, Going Gaga Records/ Shang-A-Lang Records - 2009)

I never really liked bands like Jellyfish or Weezer or Teenage Fanclub... OK, I'm lying here a bit. Teenage Fanclub were great actually and Weezer had their good moments sometimes (Jellyfish are still shite though) but these bands are definitely not what I have in my mind as "powerpop". As far as I know, the term belongs to the great Greg Shaw and even though he liked stupid things like ABBA thankfully never released something like it... So things like the Romantics, The Rubinoos, The Shoes and The Nerves are what from day one I too tag as "powerpop" in my vocabulary. Pop bands with a well hidden (sometimes) smell of raw rock and roll!

Among the very best the last few years are Mother's Children from Ottawa Canada. In fact Canada rules the powerpop game nowadays and has quite many and quite excellent gangs around (The Mandates, Fashionism, First Base and Nervous Talk are the first my mind brings swiftly - try them, without question WTS approved outfits) but Mother's Children topped them all with their glamified powerpop n' roll! What really makes these guys special (except for their amazing hooks, harmonies and riffs) are the drumbeats. Seriously now, this guy here's the best thing I've heard behind the kickdrum since the early days of the Hellacopters (respect to Robban, Keith Moon's Swedish lovechild). 

That's their first and it's probably long ago out of print and I'm still not having it psychically. This rip belongs to the departed friend of mine Patrick, of the SOTD fame. Shit man, almost everyday I think of him and the legacy he left behind. There are bands recently discovered by me and it turns out that Pat had them way before me on his site... Anyway, these guys, Kurt Baker's projects, The Cry! and The Connection are combos Joey Ramone would be proud of, trust me! Support them fanatically. 

Skrewdriver - "All Skrewed Up" (CD, Not on Label - 2014, original LP release by Chiswick - 1977)

Heeeeeyyyyy!
It's been a while (again), right? Hope all you guys and gals out there to be cool as always! I have to
apologize once more for the lack of audio-related posts but keeping two blogs alive, having a 9 to 5 (on the good days...) "normal" job and a family makes it quite difficult sometimes. To make things worse (better actually), I'm trying to re-build an old fashioned (to many people) printed zine, he-he... So I guess here's the point that I have to ask for more patience from all the bands and labels side cause guys, I'm really strugglin' to make it sometimes...

Anyway, enough with the sorry ass shit! It's time to reassign your trust on WTS for your rock & roll pleasure and (maybe) education. I know many of you people are goggling your eyes now to the view of a Skrewdriver post here but believe me, I've changed none of my political thoughts and of course I still HATE racist/fascist scumbags (I'm writing these lines while I'm listening to the Charles Packy Axton full-on black grooves, yes I can be as diverse as that)! This original and early version of the band had nothing to do with the later Stuart's "white power" shit. I mean, this fucking hostile masterpiece was produced and released back in 1977 by none else than Roger Armstrong... You know, the brilliant guy behind Ace Records... As you can easily understand was a zero chance for such a dude to had friendly relations with neo-nazi lowlifes, right?

So the early Skrewdriver lineup was/is the quintessential boot-boy street punk gang (along with the Cockney Rejects and Cock Sparrer) and had their roots deeply planted on The Rolling Stones, The Who and AC/DC (and here's another evidence of their prime dissimilarity). They were the hools that used terraces for their "Us against the World" attitude and not for their favorite club's achievements. Unfortunately they lasted for almost three years and left as consignment a number of singles and this utterly classic album, first on the legendary Chiswick label. Don't know if this CD release is actually a bootleg. I ventured a Google-search but found no official release to exist (if you're aware of such a thing, please advice). I tell you though, boot or not this one includes all the powers of the original Chiswick release. I read also that initially manufactured with four different colorings but I witnessed only this one and the yellow.

To cut a long story short, don't be afraid to blast this thing at a maximum volume. Ian Stuart Donaldson's hate/fascist vehicle has only one but sad blood relation with this punk rock road roller: The Name.