In life, there are those that tow the line, and those that rattle convention’s cage — shake that fucker for all its worth, until the bolts come loose and the bottom drops out. Music is no different: There are bands that work calmly within the accepted guidelines of their chosen genre, and those that fight given conventions, thrashing about like a caged animal. In this light, the Sex Pistols didn’t invent punk, they merely pistol-whipped rock & roll, leaving it disfigured for life. San Antonio’s Dropouts aren’t quite that fierce, but the raw, garage R&B dementia they ply certainly isn’t the same strain that sprang from London in the Sixties — no matter how much they try. “Come On,” the title track from the group’s new Unclean disc, is also found on a U.K. single (Crocodile), yet with a couple of B-sides not found on the CD; “Cutie Named Judie” and “Tell Your Daddy.” Neither are reasons to take Come On off your stereo, then again, after hearing the new CD, you’ll want every track you can get from these guys. Speaking of rattling cages, no one does it better than Austin’s Lord High Fixers, whose new No Lie single, “Right Here Right Now” b/w “Come See About Me” has nothing to do with Van Halen and everything to do with the Supremes. Pissed-off punks who bludgeon you with feral backwoods blues howls, LHF are simply scary, and their tradition of demolishing classics remains equally frightening with their reading of the aforementioned Motown classic. Not snapping quite as hard at the hand that feeds are another batch of local punk thugs, Los Tigres Guapos, whose six-song Play Hard to Like EP (Mortville) may not break new ground, but it keeps the pavement hot with taunt bass and guitar lines that snap like a bullwhip. “Don’t Call Me Bobby No More,” in particular, stings with the lash. A horse-whipping would generally be in order for anyone evoking Loverboy, but, Toof, an unknown local quantity, do so with class: “Everybody’s working for the weekend/every body needs a new romance/heard the guy in Loverboy stuffed his pants.” That’s from “Chinstrap” on the band’s new Propellor 45, a “lo-fi trailer trash disco” mishmash begging for longer grooves so the drum machine can make their hypnotic trash-talking provoke convention even more.
— Raoul Hernandez
Crocodile: PO Box 1412, Holywell, Flintshire, North Wales, UK. CH 7WN; No Lie: 4206 Parry Ave., Dallas, TX 75223; Mortville: PO Box 4263 Austin, TX 78765; Propeller: PO Box 3010, Austin, TX 78764
“7 & 7 Is” reviews all local and national singles: Send to: “7 & 7 Is,” c/o The Austin Chronicle, PO Box 49066, Austin, TX 78765
This article appears in April 11 • 1997 and April 11 • 1997 (Cover).