five songs: rocket from the crypt

Thanks to that Hot Snakes post from the other day, I’ve been listening to a lot of Rocket from the Crypt this past week, and, madeleine-like, remembering just how great the San Diego band was. Led by John “Speedo” Reis, also of the Hot Snakes, Pitchfork and Drive Like Jehu, RFTC were a very ’90s band with a sound right in the middle of punk and ska (lotsa horns). Aside the Interscope-released Scream, Dracula, Scream!, which includes “Used,” the best pro-suicide song I have ever heard (that’s a bit cheeky, btw), we now have all of the key Rocket recordings. Here are five tracks to give a spin, ranked in order of preference:

01 “Ghost Shark“: Rocket from the Crypt have three moods: goofy, sneering and pissed-off. There aren’t too many bumming tracks, but my fave RFTC song, “Ghost Shark,” is one of them. It’s self-consciously big and introspective (a strange thing for them; the closest San Diego bands ever come to introspection is reflective aviators) and Speedo’s voice is sad and harsh, but in such a way that it’s involuntary: we have pushed him to this point, and now it’s our duty to listen to him bitch. I’m honestly not sure if the impact will be quite as big for folks who aren’t really into Rocket, but among everyone I knew who adored them, they loved this song; we had never heard them sound quite so… normal.

02 “Ditch Digger:” Rocket’s one “hit” and deservedly so. Huge guitar sound — you could raise weather balloons with its airiness — and a big sing-along chorus whose popularity is fascinating in the context of 1992, when this record came out. The video, directed by Spike Jonze, looks like the Bolshevik Revolution Gone Rockabilly (“Bread, Peace, Hair Grease!”):

03 “Killy Kill Again“: Fastfastfastfast, the song running at about 4500 RPM in fifth gear in the verse, then dropping hard into first for the pre-chorus as the drums pound and stutter like exploding pistons. So hot.

04 “Bring Us Bullets“: “Bring Us Bullets” on Live From Camp X-Ray, their last and I think best album, is a perfect transition between/amalgamation of the Hot Snakes and Rocket: the verses the twirling dervishes of the Snakes, the choruses the ska-punk of early Rocket. It’s like an abridged version of Speedo’s post-Jehu career in one song!

05 (THREE-WAY TIE)(YES I AM A CHEATER) “White Belt“: Sounds a lot like “Killy Kill” mixed with the next song, but we’ve never made any claims about variety!

“Trouble“: One of the things I liked about Rocket was that they weren’t above a little cheese, and this track, with its spell-it-out chorus, most certainly is that.

“Chantilly Face“: Such a gimmicky, throw-away novelty cover/album filler, but for some reason I’ve always had an incredibly soft spot for it. I can’t explain it, but there it is, all the same. Another one I wish we had is their cover of the Silver Apples’ “You and I,” which is on All Systems Go Vol. 2. It’s not wonderful, but it’s really damn noisy, sometimes enough to suffice.