Golden Boys are a five piece from Austin, Texas. The best known name in the band is John Wesley Coleman III, who is known in Austin and elsewhere not only as one of the Golden Boys, but also as a singer songwriter, stand up comedian and a trash poet. But, according to what I could find about the band, it seems that Matt Hoopengardner and Bryan Schmitz, on two guitars and main vocals, are the main driving forces behind the Golden Boys.
Dirty Fingernails is their fifth album and it could be said that it’s the most mature of them all so far. One can find a wide berth of musical genres, from power pop, garage rock and punk rock. The rhythm is fast and the sound is amplified, drum and keyboard driven. Song Outta The Dark even has some horns. Daddy’s Horsewife sounds like a hardcore punk parody. But other than that the topic is mostly love and in general.
The songwriting is very pedant, although the sound is decidedly sloppy.
Garage rocking Curtains, sounds like something that could be on legendary Spoons album Voxin’, although I would be very surprised that the Golden Boys made a conscious connection there.
The first tune on the B-side is Older Than You, obviously on the topic of age difference between the two lovers. It has an extremely catchy one guitar string riff, reminding me on Empire’s Bob Andrews, something that he would employ on Expensive Sound.
The last tune on the record We Are Young is a perfect closer, the unofficial greatest hit of 2012 in my mp3 player. It’s another song on the record about getting older, an anthem about growing up, a sort of a sister song to the Replacement’s Bastards of Young. It is definitely a standout on an album that is nevertheless excellent. With Older Than You on position B1 and We Are Young closing the record, we get a full circle on one side of the record and the topic of coming out of the age becomes the dominant one. Still, it’s not definitely not a downer. It’s a celebration, and it a fun record to play on repeat.
Technical note: the vinyl record is duplicated at the United Records Pressing plant from Nashville TN. Their prints are all over the place – some the best around, some are substandard. My copy of the Golden Boys is very well done – no complaints sound-wise although there are specked scratch patterns on the surface, which is something one just has to get used to at the United Records.
First published on rockxs.com.
Today we say goodbye to Johnny Perez, who played drums in the early days of The Sir Douglas Quintet. We also play some very interesting reissues from many different heroes of this show. Tav Falco has reissued his debut album Beyond The Magnolia County recently, and the record cover includes a nice four sided description on the early history of the band from the insiders. Legendary first (and only) album by Memphis band Moloch also has a very nice high quality vinyl reissue. Beach Boys and Frank Zappa are reissuing their entire catalog and Velvet Underground’s debut from 1967 saw an extremely expanded 6 disc upgrade. Also there’s a new tribute to the same record, marking a nice 45 year anniversary. Other new stuff is Kurt Baker and his new record, as well as Austin’s Rosie Flores.
Hear us roar through an hour of music with the speed of light – from zesty hard-core punk to tearful country. You won’t even know what has got you. We start off with the brand new 7″ from the hard core masters from Raleigh, NC. Our old friends Double Negative are back with the thrid and fourth installment of their Hardcore Confusion series. We also introduce Modern Superstitions, a new band from Canada. Then there’s Brooklyn’s own rockers Nude Beach, who present themselves with an extremely accessible, yet uncompromising second album. Zappa’s guitarist Mike Keneally joins forces with XTC’s Andy Partridge for the new album. In the end, we shed a tear with the Sweethearts of The Rodeo.
Today we say goodbye to one of my personal heros. Tusta was a singer of a great punk band KUD Idijoti who put out a series of three excellent EPs back when I was just starting to be interested in the underground rock. For me, Idijoti was one of the most exciting things that happened musically worldwide, although they were just a small local Yugoslav band. Unfortunately, cancer took Tusta’s life sometime last week and it shook me deeply. As if a family member died, although I didn’t even know him personally. Today show is for Tusta. We hear some his music and we also check out some of the new music as well. Cowbell is a duet from England. Electric Six have a new live record, and they visited Cleveland. Along, they brought a new band from San Diego called Little Hurricane, also a duet. And we saw an interesting new Cleveland band, Dead Sweaters. Plus Dick Valentine has a new solo record. And The Legs, Eric Oblivian’s old band, has their recordings from 2000 finally out on a record.
Jesse Lee Smith is a fellow that hails from the Atlanta rock’n’roll scene that gave us many interesting garage rock bands in the past few years. One of the bands that started it all was the Ramones influenced quintet The Carbonas and Jesse played bass in it. He had a somewhat more complex vision on what his music should be, so he started a solo career with a rotating line up of musicians simply referred to as “his men”.
Today we review some parts of the blooming and booming new San Francisco rock’n’roll scene, lead by Ty Segall who has a new album out there called Twins. We also check out the wonderful cajuns from Switzerland, Mama Rosin, who made a new album in New York City with Jon Spencer and also have another ad-hoc project called Les Frères Souchet. Talking about the Francophone stuff, we have a new single for Perpignan’s Jack of Heart and including their potent cover of Gun Club’s For The Love of Ivy recorded live in Cleveland. We close the show with Amy Lavere and Shannon McNally with their new tour rehearsal tapes and with Lucy Kaplansky’s cover of The Beatles tune I’m Looking Through You.
New supergroup today: David Hidalgo from Los Lobos, Luther Dickinson from North Mississippi Allstars and Mato Nanji join forces on a new album together called Three Skulls And The Truth. We have also the new non-album single from Natural Child and a track from a new LP for Suzi Chunk. The new names today are The Shivas from Portland and Forty Nineteens from LA. Famous tribute to the great late Arizona guitarist Rainer Ptacek called The Inner Flame has been reissued with some tracks missing and some new tracks. We check it all out today.
The Dirtbombs from Detroit joined forces with Dan Sartain and Terrible Twos for a new ep release and they cover another act from Detroit on that single – a cult band called Death. Quartet from Pittsburgh, PA Satin Gum are back with their second album, which they call LP2. Mark Eitzel and Rickie Lee Jones have new solo records out. And Crusaders of Love is a new name today, from Lille in France.
After several years of personal hell, Dan Stuart is finally back. His old band, legendary Green On Red, disbanded in 1992, and Dan tried to continue solo. After a record with Al Perry in 1993 and the first solo album in 1995, Dan disappeared from the music business.
The Replacements fans should pay special attention today. We have a new track for Paul Westerberg and also a new one for Chris Mars. Chris’ song is a part of an effort to raise fund for Slim Dunlap’s recovery after a severe stroke this February. And we also have Kevin Bowe, a musician from Minneapolis who collaborates with Westerberg on Bowe’s new record. Nels Cline is on guitar. We also have the brand new album for Natural Child. They already had one really good one earlier this year called For The Love Of The Game (we have a