
The Holy Knives – Killer
Bring back the guillotine. And have gladiators getting eaten up by tigers playing as a warm-up. I’m sure few people will complain. And, anyway, all those voices will be drowned out by everyone having a world of a time, fighting to get tickets and scalping them for exorbitant prizes. Just imagine the roar of the crowds when they read out the next name whose head is going to be on the blade.
Worry not. Easy listening music and pop stars singing innocently about Christmas Eve don’t leave a lot of ripples. The audiences would rather have blood splattered about the place. The audiences would rather have some savage entertainment. And, in a world where rock has lost out the battle in terms of sounds, it can make up with its words, intentions, threats.
That’s what The Holy Knives do so well on the single “Killer.” The duo presents itself as an unhinged rock band without actually resorting to yelling or pulling out the distortion pedals. No need to do that. They use pop tricks on the pop crowds instead and have the sinister tension of their song, the feeling that they are soundtrack some kind of horrible deed to sell the tune. Heads are gonna roll, and you shouldn’t expect one of the pop princesses to handle the axe.
Johnny & the Dinosaurs – Young At Heart
Rockstars are fated to perpetual youth. What a chore that must be! What a cruel fate! They can never get any older, and they can never stop and laugh at themselves. Most of their stories, even if they’re written by themselves and a ghostwriter, don’t include tales of failing and growing. Rockstars need to stay exactly the same forever. And what if they don’t? We kill ‘em!
That’s a warning to anyone still dreaming of being a rockstar. Are you sure you’re going to fit in the same skinny jeans in your 60s? And are you sure you handle the mockery and ridicule of the internet trolls telling you that skinny jeans haven’t been cool in a while? Nah, it’s only the people who refuse to be rockstars, who are alright with getting old, with messing, and with having a laugh at their own expense who really got to live to ride this journey of life.
Johnny & the Dinosaurs use their single “Young At Heart” to write a comedic heartbreaker of a song, a tune about the passing of time, and about things coming undone. Unlike The Cure’s most recent outing, Johnny ain’t mad at the world. It’s just the way it goes. The band also finds just the right mix of sounds to communicate all of this with a kind of J. Mascis trying to mess up a Tom Waits for tune kind of tone, leading the song and the story toward honourable old age.