Rocket From The Tombs - The Day the Earth Met the Rocket from The Tombs

Legends.

Like the back cover sez: One of the greatest albums NEVER recorded. As the dust settles more and more on the real unabridged history of punk-rock there has been some great re-truths to the whole glorious mess that has elevated the Cleveland scene to that of great importance.

Reference point one: The Electric Eels
Reference point two: The Pagans
Reference point three: Pere Ubu
Reference point four: The Mirrors
Refrence Point five (reluctantly): The Dead Boys

Cleveland - The Hole truth and nothing but the truth.

Continuing their focus on Ohio past and present, Smog Veil accomplished the astronomical task of assembling a collection of demos and practice tapes from a band accumulating members from Pere Ubu and The Dead Boys before those bands existed. Fucking astronomical!!!

Take what you will and leave the rest to rot, those of you following my writings will know of my less than supportive, what I like to call an "un-belief" in the thing called The Dead Boys (I prefer the REAL sound that was The Pagans) and to tell you the truth I have as much reverence for Pere Ubu than The Pagans. I number some Pere Ubu tracks as very influential to what I now deem the Neoteric Punk/Wave.

Rocket from the Tombs is another chapter, not the first, but definitely one of the first three, in the hidden history of punk-rock’s beginnings. Charged by danger level rock and or roll like The Stones, Alice Cooper, Velvet Underground and The Stooges, Rocket from the Tombs took what influenced them and took it to the next level.

The sounds survived the sonic reduction. We were left with a Final Solution of our own that was...

A Final.

Solution!

Look at what this band did, and the fact that they were called Rocket from the Tombs; this band is long DEAD, a true rocket from the tombs exploding and making one realize, Cleveland is more than a rust belt midwestern city...

"30 Second Over Tokyo"
"What Love Is"
"Life Stinks"
"Sonic Reducer"
"Down In Flames"

Yeah, I know what you’re thinking. The same thing I was thinking.... Wow, this band sure does a lot of covers; those are all Dead Boys and Pere Ubu Songs...... HAHAHAHAHAHA, but seriously....get a life, I’m STILL looking for one of my very own...(vampiric; we all’s gotta be SOMETHING)

Rocket from the Tombs is superior to the Dead Boys, and more closer to Pere Ubu than one might think, at first. Cut it either way in generous proportions, this is some intense shit. A MUST HAVE.

Listening to the disc, reading the liner notes… Just as I believe a movie should be written and made about the Texas punk scene, a better one would be a movie chronicling the Cleveland/Ohio scene including the Electric Eels and Rocket from The Tombs.

Dave Thomas as himself… Stiv Bators, the beginning of the end… The kid in back everyone hated, but needed to brake it all in half and set the pieces in motion. The Electric Eels as the true mover and shaker artists they were.

I have just one more thing to say before you go out and get this:

After The Electric Eels Eyeball from Hell.... Rocket from The Tombs...It all makes sense now..... (