Wednesday, June 6, 2007

The JOLTS (Canada)

JINX
-CDep
2006 (Haute Voltage)





"What can I say? This Vancouver act caught me completely off guard with their highly infectious and crazy sound. Call it garage/ rock/ punk or whatever you want, but the tunes jump right off the CD and into your head. In fact, they’re in there right now AND THEY WON’T COME OUT!" - Chris Walter


"Smell that? Thats the hair on your knuckles being burned off by the lightning force of The Jolts' rock and roll attack. There's no safe haven when Joey Blitzkrieg, Dylan Danger, Lector Kurrentz and GT Flare hit the stage, cuz sparks will fly guaranteed! Their debut EP Jinx is an 11-minute barrage of riff-laden majesty that recalls heavy hitters Turbonegro or Electric Frankenstein in their prime. And for the non-believers, youll be seeing them soon in a back alley bar near you busting out their blazing tunes to all within reach - just don't get too close. Safety gear recommended! " -Ion Magazine


"The Jolts play with an edge sharp enough to shave the balls of an orangutan. The songs are simple, but tight and fast, with good structure and, most importantly, guts. When the Jolts EP Jinx came out, I knew that I’d have to do a story. Finally, we got it together.

First, I want to know, what are the Jolts about? Do they want to change the world, or are they more interested in Jagermeister and hash? “We’re about rock and roll,” says Joey Blitzkrieg. “We’re punks, but more in the getting-fired-from-your-job -after-being-caught-stealing- and-spending-your-last-cash- on-Jagermeister-and-hash kinda way than in the new-wave-hair-do’s-and-left-wing politics way.”

Guitarist Dr. Danger adds, “I’d say we’re more interested in having a good time than anything else. That usually means drinking and, in Joey’s case, a bit of hash. I tend to stick to beer though.” Satisfied that GG Allin’s legacy is safe, I ask what their first memories of punk were, and what made them want to start a band?

“The Ramones made me wanna start a band,” says Blitzkrieg. “My first memories are of trying to get in to the Brickyard and Starfish (clubs) every weekend to see Flash Bastard or the Smugglers, or some other rad local band, and always being ID’d. I’d have to go home and listen to records.”

Says Dr. Danger, “My first memory of punk was playing drums with my first band Son of Spam. I was 14 or 15 and the rest of the guys in the band were 19 or so. We drank a lot and played cover songs in my friend’s garage until someone complained about the noise. The initial reason I started a band was just an excuse to get together with friends, and to try to play songs we liked. I grew up in Prince Rupert where there were no other bands, so that might’ve been part of it as well.”

“A lot of people shit on Green Day, but they are the reason I wanted to start a punk rock band,” says bassist Lector Kurrentz. “I was 10 when Dookie hit and they’re the reason I got into other great punk bands, like the Queers, Screeching Weasel, and Blatz - any of the old Lookout bands...”

Do they wish punk was still dangerous? Have they ever been beaten up or chased for “looking funny”? Blitzkrieg answers, “I thought punk still was dangerous! Actually, I haven’t had a rock thrown at me or been called a f*ggot for a while now, so I guess it isn’t...”

"As far as getting hassled for looking funny, I think that comes with the territory. Last summer we were complimented on our tight jeans and implicit homosexuality at 2:00 AM by some real intellectual types hanging out beside a Jeep in Red Deer, Alberta. It seems you get a lot of compliments like that out in the middle of nowhere." - Chris Walter


"The Jolts may hail from Vancouver, British Columbia (that’s in Canada for the geographically challenged), but they sure sound like they’ve listened to a lot of Cleveland, Ohio punk rock. The main influences here seem to be The Dead Boys and The Pagans (with a little bit of New York in the Joey Ramone-influenced vocals), and that’s fine with me. The production is raw and dirty and the songwriting is solid. The Jolts don’t bring much new to the party, but they do a fine job of pillaging the past on this 5 song EP. If you like your punk rock untamed and ugly and flavored with raunchy lead guitar, ‘Jinx’ should be just up your alley. Every track on here is a keeper, but we’ll have to wait until a full length to see if these guys can sustain this level of quality for more than 15 minutes." - Bob Ignizio


"It's a shame that all I know about this band is four things: First, each member of the band has a great name attached to them...Flare, Blitzkrieg, Kurrentz and Danger... Second, the band is (I think) from Canada, at least that's where their mailing address leads. Third, the band plays some of the best rock n roll I've heard in some time. A mix of seventies punk and rock n roll, The Jolts don't pull any punches as to where their influences lie. Each song stands out on it's own, is catchy and invades your brain almost instantaneously! You'll get a wad of rock then a smattering of street, then back to metal pop, then back to solid rock n roll. The Jolts can do it all!! Fourth, this CD is fucking short! Too short if you ask me! I want more! There are only five tracks on the disc. I'm assuming that this is an EP, leading into a full length album that I desparately need to track down. To summarize this disc: funny names, Canadian, sweet sounds, five tracks...a must have disc for fans of underground rock n roll." - MG


The JOLTS:
Joey Blitzkrieg - Vocals & Lead Guitar
Dylan Danger - Lead Guitar & Vocals
Lector Kurrentz - Bass Guitar & Vocals
GT Flare - Drums


Tracklist:
01 Caffeine Heartbeat
02 Bloody Eye Socket
03 Angel Bitch
04 Can't Figure It Out
05 Jinx

Bonus Cuts:
06 Rambo Rat (Queers Cover)
07 Never Loved You (Live)
08 Set Up (Live)
09 Can't Figure It Out(Live)


Download (192 kbs, 37 Mb)

COLOR ME PSYCHO (Canada)

H+R BLOCK Recordings
w/ LIVE @ THE NATIONAL
- CS
1985 (bootleg)




"Calgary's ground zero! Comprised of members of legendary punk outfits The Sturgeons and Riot .303, they are the original and still the best...The band members went on (and on, and on...) to form other great Calgary bands such as The Primrods, Forbidden Dimension and The Von Zippers. 'Nuff said!" - Daaren Boreham




"Dez and I started this group as a late-in-the-day ('85) 2-man "new wave"project called the Cryptics. I was into the Damned, Cramps and garage/proto-metal stuff, while Dez was more of a Tubeway Army/Stranglers synthy kinda guy. Luckily, after hearing our horrid demo tape, former Sturgeons/Riot .303 guys S.P. Larkin and E. A. Crow joined up and were able to inject some much needed testosterone/humour into the proceedings.


Dez eventually left to pursue a career as a chicken hygienist and we went through the revolving door thing with keyboard guys, doing a tape-only album with Worsley and a vinyl LP with Twelvefingers. We played around Calgary, Edmonton, Red Deer and made a trip out to Vancouver before killing the band off in the fall of '88.


We also had a brief appearance in a horror movie called "Little Girls Don't Kill". Dave Trainor, local make-up genius and Fangoria magazine contest winner of the original severed head prop from "Reanimator", was the guy who built the banjo-through-the-head killbilly fellow on the LP cover. Our one brush with true greatness!" - Aleister Hexxx



"So for you fuzz fiends, I say, scour your local record emporium or one of them new fangled interweb money laundering places and see if you can score a copy of something, of anything by the late, the lost, the lamented Color Me Psycho." - Iren



The Band:
S.P. Larkin
Edgar Alvin Crow
Aleister Hexxx
Dez Viewmaster
Dan Worsley
Johnny Twelvefingers


Tracklist:
"H+R Block" - Early Recordings
01 - Stiff All Over
02 - Mr.Invisible
03 - Shove Your Love
04 - Transylvanian Erotica
05 - Cryptica - Shatter City
06 - Rocket Babies
07 - Chandeiler Of Pain
08 - Lovers Leap
09 - Bride
10 - Grand Guignol
11 - Prove It
12 - My favourite nightmare
13 - Suffocation Girl
14 - Genius At Work
15 - Rigor Mortis Rock
16 - Psychomania
17 - Psychomania ("Pretend..." Outtake)
18 - Gargoyles (not released)
19 - 13 Is My Lucky Number ("Writing On Stone" comp)

LIVE @ The National
20 - Stiff All Over
21 - Kitten With A Whip
22 - Rocket Babies
23 - Lotsa Medicine
24 - My Father's Name Was Dad
25 - Genius At Work
26 - Rigor Mortis Rock
27 - My favourite nightmare
28 - Suffocation Girl

Download (192 kbs, 112 Mb)

You can find a previous post to Color Me Psycho's Kiss Me, Then ... Color Me Psycho
w/ Pretend I'm Your Father in the archive if you click here.