V.A. (Sucking The 70's) 2CD
Small Stone Records have done an excellent job with this compilation, released in 2002, which features 35 bands (FIVE HORSE JOHNSON / THROTTLEROD / DIXIE WITCH / CLUTCH / THE GLASSPACK / THE LAST VEGAS / HALFWAY TO GONE / SUPLECS / PUNY HUMAN / RAGING SLAB / LOS NATAS / THE HEADS / LAMONT / BACKDRAFT / BLACK NASA / WARPED / HANGNAIL / ROADSAW / NOVADRIVER / ALABAMA THUNDERPUSSY / DISENGAGE / PORN (THE MEN OF) / MILLIGRAM / TUMMLER / FIREBALL MINISTRY / SPIRIT CARAVAN / LOWRIDER / THE MUSHROOM RIVER BAND / BROADSWORD / DOUBLENECK / LORD STERLING / THE BROUGHT LOW / SCOTT REEDER / TECTONIC BREAK / GIDEON SMITH & THE DIXIE DAMNED) and it clocks in at 156+ minutes (!) and all bands are performing cover-songs of more or less-known 70's Hardrock bands. I won't lose words about every band, but there's a lot of hard-hittin' stuff on it and only a few filler. Most of the material is played very close to the original, but there are also some surprises. Outstanding tracks are SPIRIT CARAVAN with "Wicked World" (Black Sabbath), THROTTLEROD are burning down the house with "Black Betty" of Ram Jam, LOWRIDER are playing a smoking version of the Leafhound classic "Freelance Fiend", LORD STERLING are doing a total MC 5 worship with an overwhelming cover of "Black To Comm" , GIDEON SMITH & THE DIXIE DAMNED gives us a personal heavy psyched-out interpretation of Steppenwolf's "The Pusher"and PORN (THE MEN OF) are destroying Neil Young's "Out On The Weekend".
A real surprise are BROADSWORD, not only because of their great version of "Woman Tamer" of the Heavy Doom Metal pioneers Sir Lord Baltimore. The line-up of the band contains ex-members of The Obsessed and Goatsnake (Greg Rogers & Guy Pinhas) and White Zombie (J. Yuenger). I hope, that this isn't only a project and maybe, we will here more of BROADSWORD in the future. I could mention more good examples for the quality of this double-CD set as, HANGNAIL's soulful version of Led Zeps "Bron-yr-Stomp" or the THE HEADS with their mind-blowing hard-driven psych version of May Blitz' "For Madmen Only" and so on. "Sucking The 70's" is a real cool compilation, very tasteful combined and it's like a tribute to the most influencal period of Rock history, especially for the above mentioned bands. It's been a good choice, too, that you won't hear the next boring cover of "Kick Out The Jams", "Iron Man" or "Sweet Home Alabama", although here are songs as "Dog Eat Dog" (WARPED), "Working For MCA" (TUMMLER) or "T.V. Eye" (THE GLASSPACK), which aren't that worse. The only point of critic is about the featured band. For my taste, there could have been a wider spectrum of heavy bands and I miss bands as Internal Void, Earthride, Penance, Warhorse or more Sludge-oriented acts like SourVein, Beaten Back To Pure or Weedeater. But all in all, "Sucking The 70's" is definitly one of the better compilations and due to the extended playing time, I'll promise that it will be a amazing ride through the past and present of the hard rockin' 70's. Highly recommandable! You can order it from the Small Stone Records homepage or ask your local record dealer.
(KK)