Eastside Suicides
The Eastside Suicides (Super Secret)
Reviewed by Christopher Gray, Fri., Aug. 29, 2003
Eastside Suicides
(Super Secret) If Iggy Pop can reform the Stooges after 30-some odd years, it stands to reason that plenty of younger musicians are still enthralled with tweaking Pop's patented formula of runway poses and raw power. Although the debut from Austin's Eastside Suicides is more Max's Kansas City than Motor City mayhem, this 10-song LP still radiates enough lowbrow druggy splendor to turn your neighborhood shooting gallery into a roomful of junkies doing the mashed potato. Credit goes to singer Frankie Nowhere, who delivers his lines in a blunt, flouncy sneer perfectly positioned between Mick Jagger and Joey Ramone. He's like the psychotically leering doorman beckoning you into an after-hours bar, or as on "Booker T. Projects," the slightly unbalanced friend who somehow always talks you into giving him a ride to the 'hood. Then there's Kan and Fast Tammy, whose twin-guitar attack is equally capable of power-chord carpet-bombing and leads that work their way under your skin like a homemade shiv. Bassist B.J. and drummer Tom Laundry, meanwhile, keep the 40-minute disc from bogging down by not overplaying; their restraint acts as fog lights cutting through the haze of guitars and Nowhere's wild-eyed antics. Still, the most remarkable thing about Eastside Suicides is its unbridled enthusiasm for good old-fashioned rock & roll, the kind you can dance to, that so pervades the album it no longer seems that important to wonder what a "$20 hell ride" might mean.