Rocket From The Crypt - "Scream, Dracula, Scream! - White Trash Soul Edition"

 

Fact is a lot is written already by me about the '90s, but that's the era I grew up in - be kind (or fuck off). Now that I have enough distance to draw reliable conclusions, I believe it really was a fantastic time to be a young prick! There were so many incredible bands and records around floating almost every week, If you had been there, there would be no way you could have forgotten it. As that impartial judge called time has shown, many of these have stood the test of time and are now rightly considered just as essential as their '60s and '70s predecessors. Right? Right!

Punk rock was no exception to this. A healthy underground scene existed globally that put to shame the bands under that tag that did make it commercially. OK, "Dookie" was fantastic record, and Rancid did well too, either by rejecting Madonna's offers or by releasing "And Out Comes the Wolves" but I couldn't stand bands like NOFX and I still can't stand them. After gaining momentum, Epitaph was no different to the majors in terms of what it was putting out. The last great band to come out of Bad Religion's CEO label was The Humpers, but the crowd and the establishment needed caricatures, not a rock 'n' roll band with a name like that and that junkie Johnny Thunders and The Heartbreakers feel and attitude.

To this day, amazing and most importantly, genre-defining groups are still under most people's radars. When I talk about gangs like The Stitches, The Infections, The Rip-Offs, The Devil Dogs, Teengenerate, Bladder Bladder Bladder, Dimestore Haloes, The Riffs, New Bomb Turks or Chinese Takeaway, only a handful of people are willing to rant along. And when I mention names like Mudhoney or Rocket From The Crypt, I usually get a "that's not punk" reply. You morons! Mark Arm and Co. were more garage punk than your Fuzztones and RFTC were the reincarnation of the first three Saints albums.

This leads us to the main subject of this post, which is the unsurpassed punk rock mayhem of "Scream, Dracula, Scream!" By the time this record was released, I was already a fan and had acquired "Circa Now". This Stax-abilly sound was right up my alley and it was epitomised by a band with greasy pompadours. Man, you just can't get cooler than this! Named after the infamous '70s black horror b-movie "Scream, Blacula, Scream!" and featuring the band's name and record title in the font of (San Francisco’s First and Only Rock 'n' Roll Band) Crime, you knew instantly what you were holding. The liner notes on the CD couldn't make it clearer: Our desire is to Rock 'n' Roll. Punk is dead.

In the midst of the '90s highly commercialized "punk", RFTC rejected their father in favour of their grandfather and kept the rock 'n' roll torch burning. Much to my surprise, 'On a Rope' dared to breach the charts. For a moment, I thought there was hope for humanity, there wasn't, let it all burn. These San Diego motherfuckers mixed rock'n'roll guitars on the same channel with horns in order to blow your ears and speakers and they succeeded. From start to finish, this album is the hottest garage punk and '50s R&B since when Bailey and Kuepper were still on good terms and would get shitfaced before heading into the studio.

Rocket from the Crypt released three singles from "Scream, Dracula, Scream!", all with great b-sides that deserve to be heard. There's even a cool Real Kids cover among them! I don't understand why such a high point of '90s punk/rock 'n' roll hasn't received an expanded reissue yet, which is why I decided to do it myself. Here's the complete classic release, including all the songs missing.