The Flaming Sideburns
Save Rock n' Roll (2002)

review by: Mike Webb
Date: 5/1/03

In a way it's pathetic when you find more hot new music in car commercials than on the radio. But considering that I almost never listen to the radio, I guess I'll have to make due. So about five seconds into the Toyota Camry ad where the car is flying through the air and doing 360s, I turned the volume up to the max and jumped toward my computer to find out who the hell was making that joyful noise. Turns out it's Finland's the Flaming Sideburns, and 11 downloads later I found myself jamming to what would have easily been one of the top 3 albums of 2002.

This album has it all. Raucous guitars, attitude, cool lyrics, occasional piano and maracas, shoutin' & screamin', and a nod to the Stones' when they sing Jagger's chorus under the stolen chord progression from "Empty Heart." And although it's beyond saving, I even have to give them props for having the nerve to call their album The Flaming Sideburns Save Rock'n'Roll.

The only thing I'd change about this record is switch the straight-ahead opener with "Street Survivor," the song from the TV ad that starts with a fuzzed out, stop-start guitar hook, before singer Eduardo "Speedy" Martinez begins whooping and screaming. From there on it's a Stooges-sounding pleasure ride that mines late 60s proto-punk with more late 60s proto-punk. Which is fine by me because sometimes it's not about originality, but how cool you look when you get there.