Search - Little Kings :: Head First

SOMEBODY REISSUE THIS DAMMIT!

Shlomo Sinatra | Alaska | 12/31/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The Little Kings LP was one I listened to CONSTANTLY back in '89, and '90. As years went by I felt some of the lyrics dumb, but now I feel I was mistaken; sure there are lines in I Wanna Die Like Elvis Did that aren't exactly words to live by, but what to expect from the title?

I recently realized what I've been missing out on for ages here; a great rock 'n' roll band, closer to punk (for those who wanted to label them "metal', that's not only absurd, but Bernie Bernstein (WHAT a NAME!!) said in Bam magazine in Nov. '89 that Social Distortion and The Cramps were their heroes (oddly, he said "were" back Then).

So, with roots steeped in punk (dig the Pistols-copped opening to the fantasic, brutal "I Confess"). High energy is the name of the game here, except for the dreadful bum note on here, the sole dud, "Creep", which oddly was apparently their set closer! It was considered a highlight by some of their fans; I can't see why, I guess you had to be there.

Great layered guitars on this well-produced album, with TONS of backing and harmony vocals. Reminds me of...nobody in particular, is the odd thing. Something about Bernie reminds me of the Dead Boys, but the sound really ain't there.

The guitar leads are very tasteful, which is appropriate for a band basing their sound on punk, even if this ain't what would be considered a Punk sound.

The songs might sound different if they had the sound that say, Dirty Pool had in the movie "Dudes". Really fantastic and addictive tunes.

Also REALLY vicious! I Confess, In Cold Blood, and best of all, Hard To Tell are all really aginst that woman who is going to get a comeuppence of sorts, with murder fantasies prevalent in the latter two; not to take serious, but the songs' violent sounds are a nice release indeed!; the Stones-like guitar in Hard To Tell, with lines like "let me wipe the tears from your eys and look as if I care". And lyrics that well, let's just say Goodbye to yer teenage dream for ONCE and FOR ALL, she was and IS no good anyway, now WAS she? No.... FORGET HER FOREVER.

In Cold Blood? "no-one can love you...anymore!"

I Confess is about stepping out on a real 'witch', great-- "it's a whole damn nation reday for seduction", "know all the girls around", ha ha!

The final line in it is simply "the icing on the cake" for those who feel f---ed around by some worthless tease.

The type of chick celebrated in Dirty Pool! A real sl--.

(Funny, the biggest fan of these guys I knew was this really cool chick, we both had all, ALL the lyrics memorized to the Gun Club's Fire Of Love LP, which may have been an influence here, yes, especially in the lyrics being unafraid to address the type of fantasies most wouldn't touch for fear of retribution from critics etc., for how dare think such things--but EVERYBODY does at some time or other. Even real saints walking around feel this way sometimes.



Get Your Gun is a tale of a Really unhinged individual -- the noises in the old house are getting to this guy, yknow? :"I hope they don't try to get me" (!!?); "well if they try to get some of it--they're gonna get it ALL!" Ha ha, BRILLIANT! Very clever lyrics abound on this disc.



I Wanna Die Like Elvis Did has some choice lines too -- "I want my own army, don't wanna talk to no-one"; "I lock myself in room; I got no problems at all", great! Perfect for us anti-social people. (It's also quite aware of the truth that Elvis did have OH, some problems...)



There's a couple of decent fast-paced numbers on here, Choke On It, and the title track, but this band seemed to excel when at a slower pace, although there is something charming about "I HOPE YA CHOKE ON IT!" C'mon, who Hasn't felt that way!



Excellent album, in DIRE need of being re-issued, and remastered too would be nice, but hell, just release it again! The prices this runs now are INSANE! This should be easily available, for except the closer, this is ONE HELL of an album!

I wonder what happened to all the songs recorded for 'Dudes'...and the demos they were supposedly working on much later than this album...



Great guitars (Nick Ferrari, ha ha ha! --that's a joke folks! That was Latka's alter-ego on Taxi! A real lady-killer swinger!) (the names here hint that these guys and this album ain't exactly preoccupied with realism!) Gregor Verbinski can't be a real name, can it? And Bernie Bernstein --the KING! (of what, I have NO idea...)



Fantastic, really. Completely addictive. I love this album.

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