Thursday, April 10, 2014

Sister Ray - No Way to Express (1989, Resonance)

Despite their namesake, Youngtown, OH's Sister Ray fail to draw any clear parallels with the Velvet Underground, and for that matter they don't particularly strive to.  Siphoning off fragments from just about every era of punk (and it's affiliated sub-genres) SR ultimately dole out their schtick with a garage rock ladle.

The overall effect isn’t too dissimilar from psyched-up contemporaries Love Battery and Lime Spiders, and when things really get cooking Sister Ray approach a similar sonic aesthetic to the Wipers, though that's probably a sheer coincidence.  Their oft rudimentary, low-brow prose was redeemed by considerably rich performances and arrangements.   Perfect case in points would be the melodic guitar lines that vividly fill out “I Don’t Want Your Sex,” and “No Escape.”

The first seventeen tracks comprise the No Way to Express album proper, with the remaining selections being plucked from 1987’s Random Violence LP.  A big thanks to my friend's FB post from earlier today that inspired this post.

01. Youngstown Blues
02. Fire
03. Beef Pud
04. I Don't Want Your Sex
05. Just One Night
06. Virgil Red
07. Hey Hey Hey
08. Progression
09. Sick of Skulls
10. God + Me
11. Still Born
12. Mommy's Gone
13. Sex
14. Miss America
15. No Escape
16. Funky Dung II
17. A Day in the Life
18. Release
19. Feelings
20. Random Violence
21. Way to Go
22. I've Just Seen Your Face
23. The Face
24. Hate
25. There is Sound

5 comments:

Duluoz said...

Hey! This is really good! Sure, the lyrics are a bit one-note and sophomoric at times, but the music holds up throughout it.

Do you have anything else by them? Maybe the entire Random Violence LP? Some of the tracks you tacked onto the end of this one are real scorchers.

spavid said...

No, this is all I have unfortunately. Maybe sometime...

swampgas said...

Great stuff could I get a repost?

BabyHugZ said...

Please re-up this gem.

Unknown said...

Great stuff