Unfortunately the problem with that is the amount of time those articles take. The research can be fairly time consuming due to how obscure the bands are. Many times the information found was so light that nothing could be done with it, and nothing else could be found.
From time to time the information I would find were the bands themselves. It is always a weird thing contacting these people. A few of them seemed to not want to be associated with the bands I was calling about, even though they were still involved with music. Others seemed interested in talking, but then vanished and stopped correspondence. But whatever the cases, there was time involved.
This shouldn't be news to anybody. Any writing usually takes research and time, obviously. Problem for me was that I found the time fleeting. The problem I have is that once I get behind, I usually turn away from things. This is one of my great faults that I am working to correct. One way to correct this problem is to find a reasonable way of catching up.
This brings us to this article.
This article is basically going to be made up of a bunch of "quick takes" on items I have bought over the past half year or so of buying records. I will be giving a quick run down on certain records, but I will not be doing any deep research. Yes, if there is an interesting fact I have learned I will mention it. But for the most part these will just be discussing the albums and their positive sides and if they are worth your tracking them down, and what I decent price to spend would be on each item.This will not be how every new article is going to be, but these types will show up from time to time, and might be the standard for a little while. Just until I get caught up.
So, without further delay . . .
Speed Queen - Speed Queen (1980)I was at a record convention recently and as I was walking out I stopped by one final booth. In the last crate I dug into I found this album. I looked it over. The band looked cool, the name was pretty good, and they thanked Lemmy and Motorhead.
Think about that for a second. This album came out in 1980 and they are thanking Motorhead. Motorhead was just starting to really lay their name down and become the band that would someday become en vogue to mention. This little band was tipping their hat to them in the early days. That should give you a little indication about what we have here.
So what do we have? Seed Queen were a five piece band out of France. They played a straight ahead Rock and Roll with possibly an extra kick to the gut. A little AC/DC meets Alice Cooper group in riffing, with a rough throat female vocalist named Stewy (real name is Stevie) who spews attitude in every single word.
The album consists of 8 songs, but each song is a powerhouse. They seemed to realize they were only putting down 8 songs so there was no time to get mellow. They had just enough time to rock the living hell out of the listener, and that is exactly what they were going to do. Don't expect anything fast as the name might imply to some folk, that name is obviously a tip of the hat to the other kind of speed. But every single song is that mid-tempo stomper that just gets to your heart and makes you want to live.
In all honesty this might be a band everybody knows about and I am just a complete sheltered idiot. The guy I bought this from was talking about it like it was a well known classic of hard rock. "Would you believe I just found out today that they actually released a second album!" He said to me as I was looking over the cover. "I could not believe I didn't know that!" I looked at him and was honest and said "Yeah, I have no idea who they are even." I almost felt like an idiot, but my quick research very much was pointing to a band that had slipped through the cracks. Every time I get a hit for them on the 'net it leads me to a French site. So my guess is that they are possibly known in France, and we can stop there.
I paid $15 for this. Might be a bit high for a band I was totally unfamiliar with, but I decided to risk it. After hearing it, I would have been happy paying $25 for it. They are really that good. They rock the hell out of the place and should have been much bigger than they are. If you like RnR ala AC/DC, Alice Cooper, or any other band that you want blaring through the speakers while drinking and raising Hell, then this should be an album in your collection. If you see it while out shopping, do be sure to exit with this one under your arm.
Someday I do hope to do a more detailed write-up on Speed Queen. They do deserve more coverage.
