Wednesday, May 26, 2004

Backdoor Men
Mohawk Combover
Handsome Productions)

Led by singer-guitarist Dan Cook and singer-guitarist Terry Hartman, the Backdoor Men recently reconvened to record 12 new songs and a handful of covers at Don Depew's 609 Recording studio in Bedford. Originally formed in 1977, the Backdoor Men played the same circuit as the Dead Boys and Pere Ubu but never got the same notoriety. This disc suggests the guys got shortchanged. Without following predictable punk patterns, Mohawk Combover features the wide-ranging songwriting talents of Cook and Hartman. They're all over the map, recalling Velvet Underground art punk (“Everything is Killing Me (And There's Nothing Worth Dying For)” and Pagans-like despair (“Shit Outta Luck”) while branching out into the blues (“I'm So Fucked Up”) and garage rock (“Not Fed Up with You Yet”).

— Jeff Niesel