Frenzal Rhomb, Blondshell, KISS, Neil Murray: New album reviews

The latest album in supergroup KISS’s live series has a bittersweet side PLUS Frenzal Rhomb, Blondshell and Neil Murray.

KISS in 1984 (from left) Eric Carr, Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley and Mark St John

This week’s album reviews from The Courier-Mail (ratings out of five stars):

PUNK

Frenzal Rhomb, The Cup of Pestilence

(Virgin) ***1/2

Before The Chats were a glint in their parents’ eyes Frenzal Rhomb were delivering irreverent punk to the masses. And on their first studio album in six years at times recall other satirists from They Might Be Giants to Weird Al Yankovic. Substances are overrepresented in their song titles – from Instant Coffee to ketamine and even Dog Tranquilisers – giving you some idea of the subject matter herein. You even get to hear songs like Where Drug Dealers Take Their Kids and Dead Man’s Underpants in their early humming/planning stages. “It’s always the guys with the neck tattoos that hold you close and say ‘I love you’,” Jason Whalley sings on Old Mate Neck Tattoo, while they call names like C-bombs (on Those People) and Lil Dead$hit. At 19 tracks their Cup of Pestilence runneth over, but because it’s short, sharp power pop it doesn’t overstay its welcome.

ALTERNATIVE

Blondshell, Blondshell

(Partisan/Liberator) ***1/2

She might sing of Noughties TV series Veronica Mars, but LA‘s Blondshell (aka Sabrina Teitelbaum), who was accidentally discovered via TikTok, is firmly rooted in Nineties grunge, recalling female-fronted acts of that era from Hole to The Breeders. Yes, it’s angsty, fuzzy rock that’s deeply personal at times: “I’m going back to him/I know my therapist’s pissed/We both know he’s a dick/At least it’s the obvious kind,” she sings on Sepsis. Blondshell also laments her innocence lost on the ominous Salad: “Look what you did/You’ll make a killer of a Jewish girl.” As is common nowadays, much of this debut has already been heard as singles, including breakthrough hit Kiss City. But now eager fans have more to digest.

ROCK

KISS, Off the Soundboard: Live in Poughkeepsie

(Universal) ***

The self-styled hottest band in the world is maintaining the variety with its soundboard series, this one the first of the non-makeup era and the only live recording in the KISS archives featuring short-lived lead guitarist Mark St John. St John and drummer Eric Carr – the only KISS members to have died so far, both prematurely – feature on this release, giving it a tragic tinge. It was recorded in November 1984 at the Mid-Hudson Civic Arena in Poughkeepsie, NY, a city where frontman Paul Stanley reveals he once worked as a waiter. St John has his time in the spotlight with a two-and-a-half-minute guitar solo, and Carr weighs in with a five-minute-plus drum solo before singing Ballad of the Young and Wasted. There’s even a groovin’ two-and-a-half-minute bass solo by The Demon himself, Gene Simmons, leading into one of his signature songs, I Love It Loud. Two incomplete tracks are deftly faded out. It lacks a little oomph compared to modern live recordings, but it’s interesting to hear the older treatment of songs – such as a faster rendition of traditional opener Detroit Rock City – and even a left-field Oh! Susanna instrumental.

ALT-COUNTRY

Neil Murray, The Telling

(Island Home) ****

As Warumpi Band guitarist Neil Murray was making noise about Indigenous issues before even fellow whitefellas Midnight Oil. And on his latest solo album he sings: “I don’t mean to criticise, I just want you to understand.” Murray is a singer-songwriter-storyteller in the mould of Paul Kelly, and while he’s quintessentially Australian, there are times when the guitar playing recalls Mark Knopfler (For Evermore) or even Tom Petty (Tears of Wybalenna). No Justice rages against black deaths in custody, including that of Queensland’s Cameron (Mulrunji) Doomadgee, while The Rainbow Serpent and the Mine takes aim at the plunger of Aboriginal land and water resources. It’s not all political, however, veering into the personal with the more upbeat, melodic Heal My Life and the aforementioned For Evermore, that builds to a rocking crescendo. And he dreams of the river life on twangy The Murrumbidgee, whose melody vaguely resembles that of Please Don’t Go.