Rocket from the Tombs - Barfly

The second album proper from a band who first got together in 1974. It's a fact that these guys don't believe in being hurried.
The real story is that they got together and disbanded within a year and the reason that they managed to become a rather large bold print foot note in rock and roll history is that from their ashes the rather fantastic Pere Ubu and Dead Boys rose.
They were the real proto punks for that era.
There's actually demos that surfaced as bootlegs over the years and they are as good as expected. I've yet to hear anything by them that would indicate that the legend actually overshadowed them as a band.
Then in 2003 they surprised everyone by taking to the stage together, a real wtf moment, and then they followed that with an album of original material in 2004 (Rocket Redux) that garnered much well deserved critical acclaim.
A simple exercise of recording themselves live in the studio and they were back with a debut that people only had to wait thirty years for.
After that they sort of slipped back into the shadows and got on with what they all do when they aren't Rocket from the tombs. (I'll leave you to check that out. It's all rather weird and wonderful. From the avant garde to garage punk depending on whose project it is)
Then in 2006 it was announced that they were once again back together, but apart from a tour and a single contribution to a compilation album not a lot happened.
Until now.
With 'Barfly' they are the band who are going to deliver on every promise that was never made.
Whatever you think they are they're not. Just as you think that you have a grip on what they do they take another turn and leave you catching your breath and playing catch up.
This is what I would call a real punk album.
There is no real touchstone. You get what they give you and it's damn good.
No one tells Rocket from the Tombs what they should and should not do and their disregard for convention is as sonically liberating as you would expect.
If you feel adventurous then it will turn you inside out in a good way.
Fingers crossed that they come to the UK to play with us.
Not for us, but with us