Review Summary: "Wipe out Viceroy Gunray!"
Questions, questions, so many questions… Let’s try to answer them.
What exactly is this release? Well, it’s certainly not a studio album, although it contains a few studio recordings. It is unclear if the band’s frontman Bobby Soxx ever liked or enjoyed anything at all, but he certainly disliked a lot of things. Chief among them were religion, Ronald Reagan, and, well, recording in the studio. So, Stick Men did not have that many studio sessions, and Bobby is known to have destroyed the results of several of them due to dissatisfaction with their quality. This is also not a live/concert album in the traditional sense, as the live tracks that constitute the majority of this record were not recorded in one venue, but in several locations over the years. Finally, it could be considered a compilation, but compilations normally consist of previously released tracks, and none of these songs saw the light of day until “Some People Deserve To Suffer” was published.
This is not an LP, this is not a compilation. In fact, this is not an album at all. It's a time capsule. The spirit of eighties punk rock trapped in a bottle. The surviving members of the band collected whatever songs they could find and put them on tape for all those willing to listen. The resulting release includes mostly live tracks recorded during various concerts and rehearsals, 30+ years ago.
Does the album sound bad, then? No, it doesn’t. It’s a mostly live record of punk rock songs, and punk is not supposed to be polished. But it doesn’t sound like it was recorded on a potato. “Hymn for a Fallen Angel” is the worst offender, but the absolute majority of the songs sound clear enough, and you can make out every instrument and the vocals.
Well, how does it sound? The closest analogy I could think of is The Stooges. There are a couple of faster tracks, like “Satan Baby” or "Baby Now!," and a sarcastic country-tinged “Nazi Cowboys (On Welfare).” But mostly we are treated with groovy, pressing mid-tempo songs with misanthropic and venomous lyrics.
Isn’t it a bit too long? You could say that 23 songs and a little over an hour in length are a bit too much, but punk is not supposed to exercise restraint. Besides, this is a comprehensive release, covering the whole body of work of the band, so it was bound to be lengthy.
So, it’s surely quite boring, isn’t it? No, it actually isn’t. First of all, the instrumentation is perfect for what it does, especially the rhythmic backbone of the songs. The drums and the bass are suitably meaty and gritty, making the songs both impactful and atmospheric. Oh, and “Butt***ers (Try to Ruin My Life)” is simply hilarious. The second important factor is Bobby Soxx vocals. They are simple and primal, yet are full of real, raw emotion, always conveying the right feeling. Just compare the naked vulnerability of “Who Am I?” and the absolute swagger of “I Am The One.” These are the two opposites of the emotional spectrum, both equally convincing. Thus, even though most of the songs are stylistically similar, they are never monotonous or blending into one another. You just have to be in the proper mood for this record, i.e., at least mildly pissed off.
Would Bobby Soxx himself have been happy with this release? We’ll never know for sure, because he died of liver failure a couple of years before it was published. Like I said, Bobby probably wasn’t happy about anything in life. But you might enjoy it if you like your punk rock raw and sincere. This is a band that never made it big before its inevitable implosion, but always meant business. This is the sound of a vulnerable and deeply disturbed man screaming for help and refusing to accept it at the same time. This is punk rock.
