Cool Cleveland Sounds

The Backdoor Men
Mohawk Combover
Handsome Productions

For aging punk bands, reunions are a dodgy business. It might smack of age-ism, but the fact is, punk rock is a young man's (or woman's) music, and for those looking the half-century mark in the eye, making snotty, pissed-off songs can seem just a little ridiculous. That's not to say that reuniting an old band is a guaranteed failure, but more often than not, the resulting gigs and records are far less satisfying than what came out of the old days. Luckily for the Backdoor Men, a Cleveland garage-punk five-piece that did the rounds of the city's dive bars between 1977-87, passing time has not diminished its spirit, and years of experience have largely failed to hone its members playing into something too slick for rock and roll. And unlike some "geezer acts," who attempt to ignore the effects of time, the band openly mocks its status as elder statesmen, titling its reunion disc Mohawk Combover, which shows that twenty-five years after the band's initial dissolution, their tongues are still planted firmly in cheek. Mohawk Combover is a mixed bag, a scattershot collection of songs reflecting the band's rather diverse songwriting range.

There are classic Cleveland style punk tunes, like "Cultural Insanity," that fit neatly next to their contemporaries the Dead Boys and Rocket from the Tombs - all Raw Power riffage and Rust Belt loathing, there are songs with a blues influence, rife with slide guitar, and there are blasts of pure garage rock. "Not Fed Up With You Yet" comes complete with squalling Farfisa and tons of fuzz, but that's the problem - it's far too stereotypical a garage sound. Better is the following track, "Bus Station Gyration," which shoots for the Yardbirds vibe, but ends up more like the Count Five - good classic garage rock was all about trying and failing to sound like your heroes. On tracks like "F*ck the French" and "Sh#t Outta Luck" the band gets in trouble; it is simply not becoming for grown men to take part in such juvenile rants.

The Backdoor Men, despite their punk roots, do best when sinking their teeth into more "mature" sounds, like the melodic, harmonica-laced Americana of "Pure Heart." Still, the disc is a fine testament to a band that, unlike so many of its compadres, survived to tell the tale of its wild youth and create music that echoes its original sound without slavishly re-treading old ground, and for long-term fans, there is a present - the bonus track is an appropriately muddy live rendition of "Eve of Destruction" recorded at Fitzpatrick's Rainbow in 1977. From the lack of crowd noise, it sounds like there were about a dozen people in the room. Hopefully, the next time the band decides to grace a Cleveland stage, there will be a warmer reception.

from Cool Cleveland contributor Leslie Basalla lbasalla77@msn.com