Search - Stiv Bators :: L a Confidential

Retrospective of Bators' power-pop-garage material

hyperbolium | Earth, USA | 02/20/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"First issued in 1994 as "L.A. L.A." (with a slightly different configuration), this CD collects a number of sides that find the ex-Dead Boy (and at the time of these recordings, future-Lord of the New Church) pulling mid-60s garage rock into the late-70s punk era. Included are some of his early solo work, including a speedy, guitar-rich cover of The Choir's classic "It's Cold Outside," and the pop-punk guitar originals "Not That Way Anymore" and "The Last Year." British Invasion influences are rife in chiming Rickenbackers and the full-kit Moon-like drumming of "Circumstantial Evidence."



The track list bookends Bators' 1980 solo album, "Disconnected," with later waxings that include a punky cover of Richard Berry's (by way of The Sonics') "Have Love, Will Travel" and an unusually modernized take on The Moody Blues' "Story in Your Eyes." Also included is a ragged jam on "Louie, Louie," retitled "LA, L.A.," and featuring The Runaways on backing vocals. Bators' humor and stage presence is revealed on a live song introduction appropriately entitled "Morrison Rant." The album closes with a rehearsal take of Bators and Brian James jamming to The Damned's "Neat Neat Neat."



This isn't as cohesive an album as "Disconnected," but it winningly fleshes out Bators' pop period between The Dead Boys and The Lords of the New Church."