Demolition Doll Rods “Tasty” 1997. In the Red Records. Noisy, lo-fi garage rock. The debut LP from the Detroit three-piece, known for their outrageous performances in the 90’s/early 2000s. Though it’s a great record, I’ve been avoiding writing about it for almost 6 years now because I really really dislike the cover art. I pulled Tasty to listen to back at the end of August 2019 after a rather surprising Doll Rod performance at the teeny tiny Circle A (now closed) bar in Riverwest (Milwaukee) where we and like just 25 other people were in attendance. The band was touring with Jon Spencer at the time; he played Harley Fest but my guess is the Rods weren’t invited on that bill so ended up opening for local Milwaukee act Ifihadahifi’s record release party. I was almost nose-to-nose with Dan Kroha (aka Danny Doll Rod, also of the Gories) during the show, arching my back on the barstool to get some photos. Original singer/guitarist Margaret Doll Rod was there, too but original drummer Christine Doll Rod was not (she left the band in 2006). I got a chance to chat with Dan for a bit after the show, which was a huge treat. Super-nice guy!

Tasty is both noisy and sparse, infused with blues punk and a Midwest industrial no-frills attitude. My top tracks are the ass-shaking “If You Can’t Hang…,” the snotty “Maverick Girl,” the more angular and experimental-leaning “Psycho Kitty,” the classic-blues infused “Lil Darlin”

And while I’m not entirely sure what two songs these are (other than they are not on Tasty), here is a couple of songs from their show in Chicago just a couple night after we saw them in 2019 since there is close to zero internet content from the Dolls from Tasty:

Duran Duran “Private Confessions” 2025/1984. Limited edition bootleg on Mind Control Records. It’s Earth Day today so I needed to spin the best song for the holiday: “Planet Earth,” which appears on this unlicensed FM broadcast recording of Duran Duran at Madison Square Garden on March 21st, 1984. I’m fairly certain I have other versions of this same concert on vinyl somewhere in my collection; this release definitely hits the highlights, including many of their hits from Duran Duran, Rio and Seven and the Ragged Tiger. The sound quality is decent though it’s a bit heavy on the high end: I could really have used more of John’s beefy bass and Roger’s thundering drums, and Simon’s voice sounds forced at times. In fairness to Simon, he was competing with thousands and thousands of batshit crazy screaming teenage girls. “New Moon on Monday” is particularly wonderful, with a cute intro by Simon in which he dedicates the tune to the fellas in the audience who came to the concert “with the express purpose” to meet girls (lol good luck – all those girls are hoping to go home with a Duran!). “Save a Prayer” is lovely, as always, but Nick’s keyboards are way too low in the mix until the very end when they get a bit wonky. And of course “Planet Earth” is mostly fabulous with Simon asking the audience to prove they’re into it by dancing and screaming (I’m guessing he was obliged) and his super-high energy singing; but the ubiquitous 80’s sax is too high in the mix for my tastes though and the saxophonist totally fucked up a note or two. “Careless Memories” is as urgent as ever (their performance of this one is particularly excellent). The encore “The Chauffeur” is absolutely haunting.

Pat & the Pissers “How It’s Done” 2025. Romanus Records, limited (to 50) edition “Nebula” variant. Indianapolis-based snotty, fun, socially aware hardcore punk with dashes of alt-funk/metal. How It’s Done is the Pissers third LP and, I believe, their second full length release on the Romanus label. Some of my top tracks have a very 80’s hardcore sound: the album opener “Overflow” recalls political bands like Reagan Youth; “Big Hit” reminds me of D.I. or Suicidal Tendencies who always leaned their punk toward metal. “Better Off Dead” is a bit of 80’s era Red Hot Chili Peppers (with more punk and less funk). Speaking of funk, “Strong Man” goes full on funk-metal and while not so much funk and way more punk, “Feel It” has a killer ass-shaking jam. They drop the funk completely with some straight up thrash metal on “Backseat Boys” (but danceable!). The last track, “Chump,” is pretty good but goes weirdly shoegazey dream pop. This is a great record overall – we could’ve seen the Pissers play Milwaukee a couple months back, I think, but skipped it because either the weather was shitty, we were too tired or were too busy. Hopefully they’ll be back soon – Indy is only about a 4.5 hour drive so kinda in their backyard.