These well-aged garage-sters are back with lots of hooks and good-time blah blah…all live in the city of Dahmer. Reminds me a lot of that good DEVIL DOGS album (the live one). To quote the late Bobby Soxx, “Fuck power pop, fuck new wave, this is punk rock, you’re a slave.”
I believe this is the fourth or fifth effort from this (now) quartet, specializing in the mid-’70s era of the punk/glam/power pop end of the rock spectrum. Think the HEARTBREAKERS covering SLAUGHTER (i.e. SLAUGHTER AND THE DOGS’ second LP, when they’d shortened their moniker and slowed down a tad, with more power ballads), with a touch of the BOYS thrown in for good measure. And yup, it is that good, and catchy. Not so much bubblegum, but rather the bubblegum stuck on the sidewalk and trodden in for a week or so…
This is a collection of singles and rarities from this Wisconsin band. These guys have been cranking out the JOHNNY THUNDERS style of punk rock’n’roll for a while now. Thirteen tracks here, including covers of KISS, the JONESES, and SLAUGHTER AND THE DOGS. Although I haven’t followed INDONESIAN JUNK closely over the years, they do this genre justice. I like these types of collections for the music when you haven’t found every piece of vinyl by a band.
So funny, the other day in the car a RED PLANET song came up on my mix. I thought, “Jezus, these guys really remind me of CHEAP TRICK.” And now? INDONESIAN JUNK sort of reminds me of RED PLANET. That said, in addition to RED PLANET, there’s also some BOOMTOWN RATS. Definitely throw in at least a little bit of an arena rock sound and we might be there. I will say that, overall, I find just a tad bit too much extracurricular guitar work. Sometimes, it’s awesome. Other times, not so much. That said, I do feel like there is some underlying authenticity.
