Title: One Below The All Time Low
Artist: Watts
Release date: 2007
Available from: iTunes, CDBaby, Watts – MySpace
Artist website: Watts – MySpace
Quote: This CD is definitely worth every penny – buy it, download it, listen to it and then go see Watts live. If I had a star rating system I’d give these boys a gold one. Cheers!
When I got the new WATTS CD in the mail for inclusion on Unsigned Underground, I was immediately drawn to the cover. It made me think of an old album cover from the ‘70’s. I loved the “Rock-n-Roll Poses” that the musicians were taking. I loved the simplicity. I had a pile of CDs to look through… I opened this one first.
From the get-go, Watts hits you with a wall of guitars and a driving bass-guitar/drum combo that locks in a gets yer ass up and movin’; apropos of the name Watts – taken from the surname of Charlie the rock-steady drummer from the Stones. I hesitate to refer to this as a retro-sound because it definitely has a modern feel to it, but you can sense a lineage that runs back through the NY Dolls, The Stooges, Ramones, Bram Tchaikovsky, and The Clash. The CD is expertly recorded and mixed by band member Dan Kopko and delivers a big sound with minimal time in between tracks which gives the CD a nice feeling of continuity.
I dug all of the tunes on this CD but two stand out as songs that speak to the style and to the age in which we live; an age where kids grab on to a styles from the past and call it their own without really knowing anything about it. Watts tries to set the record straight.
Catastrophe is a song that takes a power chord riff look at a shattered relationship. Starting out with a single guitar playing a Ramones-like half-step slide, the rest of the band tumbles in like friends at barroom brawl.
This is my catastrophe
Welcome to it
I took a chance but I guess I blew it
The other song that caught my ear is Start a Riot. This is definitely an anthem to true rockers out there that know the difference between punk and Avril. John Lynch’s drums beat out a cannibal call as John Blount and Dan Kopko duel it out on guitars.
It’s all been done before
The record’s broke
And I’m so bored
The kids don’t even know
They call it punk – a fuckin’ joke
When did the self-destruction
Turn into mass-production
This CD is definitely worth every penny – buy it, download it, listen to it and then go see Watts live. If I had a star rating system I’d give these boys a gold one. Cheers!
~ Darryl
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