thepaintedman rates this:

I usually shy away from reviewing stuff that I find to suck, but I decided to write about El Destructo despite the fact that their album Something is Definately Wrong sounds like some of the shitty pre-teen bands I listened to at basement punk shows in North Jersey. To be clear, I am speaking of the bands that lasted for a few months and inevitably tried to be like Henry Rollins but wound up just producing barely listenable drool and filling in empty slots between the good punk bands in the scene, of which there were many.

I’d like to begin by noting that if the band reads this, they are assuming a few things… they are likely first assuming that because I am a Christian I must take exception to their lyrics as insulting to my faith… next, they are probably discounting me as some pop-punk wannabe who doesn’t know what “real punk” is… and finally, it is safe to say that they’d dismiss my review because Bam Margera likes them and he is cooler than me.

First, I am a Believer. I prefer this term to Christian, but, yes, you can call me a Christian. That said, I don’t dismiss art just because it’s not what I believe. I think Marilyn Manson and Nine Inch Nails have put out some amazing industrial songs that I enjoy despite messages that are very against some of what I believe. I am a huge Bad Religion fan despite their attacks on religion in their earlier work, same can be said about my opinions on bands like NoFX, Propaghandi, and to a certain extent The Vandals (their Christmas album is about as blasphemous as anything I’ve ever heard). It’s fair to say that I don’t shy away from anti-Christian art, in fact I am at times drawn to it, as my faith in the religion and religious people is far less than even many of the people putting forth this music. My faith is Jesus is in tact, but I can still respect good art that doesn’t agree with my perspective.

Second, I do like a variety of music, but by no means am I a poseur of some sort. From the age or 12 I have been listening to various music that would be classified as punk. Social Distortion ranks among my favorite bands of all-time and members of the New York Dolls have been on record calling them the greatest punk band of all-time. Not convinced? I’ve gone to see The Damned, own the first Clash album on vinyl, and can recite nearly any lyric by Minor Threat. Not punk enough for you? Too poppy? Well, besides Minor Threat, I’ve listened to and enjoyed on quite numerous occasions Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, The Misfits, and many bands in the scene in the 90’s that never really hit the national scene. So, if you still want to say I am not punk enough for you, that’s fine, but it’s obviously a weak argument.

Third, while Bam seems like a fun and interesting dude, some of his musical tastes just plain suck. For every awesome band he pimps on his MTV shows, like Tubronegro or Gwar, there’s an equally mediocre or crappy band that he’s nuts about, like HIM and…well, El Destructo.

Now, before I continue ripping this album, I’ll pause to note that I want to be on their side for a few reasons. To being with, I always want to show love to Philly area bands when I can. To build on that, their influences are easy to spot and they do a good job of channeling those influences to a certain extent (can’t deny hearing HR’s style in the vocals at times, the infusion of industrial influences, a Mojo Nixon type feel here and there, and a love for old school punk and Oi!). Overall, the music, while not entirely impressive, isn’t horrible. Not to mention, their publicity company has turned me on to quite a few solid acts. These factors can’t outweigh the factors that make this a tough album to enjoy, however.

It’s hard to believe that a band that was founded in 1993 can sound this immature and unfocused. The music isn’t bad, as noted above, but lacks anything resembling decent production or the tightness of a band that includes well-traversed musicians. The lyrics are juvenile. Rather than finding a creative way to rail against what they disagree with in society, the lyrics seem to be written by a 15 year who just discovered punk and just wants to flip the bird at anything resembling government or organized religion. Lyrically flipping off social structures is what punk rock is all about, I just tend to prefer when a band can come up with lyrics better than, “It motherfucking doesn’t mean shit to me”. Even the 15 year old version of myself would have been unimpressed.

Overall, I find little to be redeeming about this release. The artwork is decent, tattoo flash style artwork as seen above, and, aside from the shout outs to neo-Nazis in the linear notes and the small swastika on the cover, the overall feel of the artwork is pretty cool. This and their publicity firm are probably the only reasons to give this CD a chance. But, if I were you, I wouldn’t bother.

20 questions for everyone’s favorite werewolf hepcats… and AWAY WE GO!

First off, let’s get this out of the way… owwwwwWWWWWW! Now that I got that out of my system, let’s start the way I start most interviews. Who are The Young Werewolves?

A band of shape shifters stalking the countryside with electric instruments, evil intentions and axes to grind. Nick Falcon on guitar, Dana Kain on bass and Jonny Wolf on drums. We all sing lead and background vocals and Jonny plays a stripped down drum kit while standing up.

How did you all get together?

We were all journeymen musicians in Philadelphia, each of us into our own versions of the local indie, punk and goth nightmare scenes. We hooked up over the internet, originally with two additional members-lead vocals and alto sax. We boiled down the unit to a lean rhythm section and started howling harmonies into the mic as a trio.

As a Philly band, you must get to play with tons of great local acts. Any favorites?

There are a lot of really good bands in Philly. Some of our favorites (in no order) are Full Blown Cherry, Thee Minks, The Sharkskins, Clashing Plaid, Mondo Topless, Jukebox Zeros, Soraia, Carfax Abbey, and Strychnine Babies.

One of my other favorite Philly bands is Mercury Radio Theater, as they too specialize in a certain brand of Horror Rock, I assume your paths have crossed. Do you know the guys?

Yes. We connected a couple of times over the years trying to organize shows but schedules, venues or other calamities got in the way of making the shows happen. I’m sure we’ll share a stage somewhere down the road.

Cool, how about on a larger level… what other bands that play Sci-Fi/Horror influenced music do you listen to and/or endorse?

Within the genre, some of the cool acts that we’re friends with and deserve more attention are PsychoCharger, Ghouls Night Out, Calabrese, Gein and the Graverobbers, The Memphis Morticians, Sasquatch and the Sickabillies.

There was a cabaret punk band I had seen back in college called World
Inferno Friendship Society used to actually play a song worshiping “The Great Pumpkin”. While as a whole I enjoyed the experience, something about them actually kinda freaked me out… but I guess that was somewhat their goal. Do you like to try to freak people out a bit or are you just more about having fun?

We are really about the music. We enjoy performing and putting on a show, but our thing is about executing the songs so they do the entertaining. That’s more our bag. If we can get asses shaking, we are doing our job. It sounds like fun but it really takes work and discipline to play and sing your parts right.

Ok, so enough about other peoples’ music, let’s get back to you. On
this last album, you got to work with B-Movie legend Sid Haig, how was
that?

Sid’s a cool cat. He’s a jazzbo from way back. He’s a talented drummer that gets pigeonholed as playing the big bad guy as an actor but he’s got mad acting and music chops.

How’d you get hooked up with him?

Sid was working on a werewolf film and heard the tunes off of our first record. He reached out to us about using our song “I Can’t Resist” for the end credits. The film fell through but Sid stayed in touch and he offered to help out with our project after he heard the early demo’s that eventually became Cheat The Devil.

I, personally, am most partial to his role as Captain Spaulding in Rob
Zombie’s films, specifically in The Devil’s Rejects, what is your
favorite Sid Haig role?

Although it doesn’t highlight his acting chops to a great degree, Sid as one of King Tut’s henchmen in the Batman television series is total fun.

While on the topic of movies, best of movie of 2009 so far? I’d say
Watchmen, but I’m expecting The Half Blood Prince to
beat it out.

If they release the re-make of The Wolfman this year, that may take top honors on any young werewolf’s list.

My favorite track on Cheat the Devil is “Tattooed Aliens”. I
love the Sci Fi lyrics. Do you have a favorite Science Fiction series? I’m
personally a big Star Wars fan and absolutely love the books
based on Bean from the Ender’s Game series.

The old school Outer Limits show is really off the hook. Even the Friday the 13th series that Fox had in the late 1980’s was pretty good, better than The X Files. We dig Dr. Who and appreciate the low fi production and especially the theme music (better than Star Trek). I don’t know if you’d consider it Sci-Fi, Sigmund and the Seamonsters was dope too.

Also, would you mind if I began referring to myself as a “tattooed
alien from the Planet 13″?

You won’t be the first!

As I’m typing up the questions for this review, I am listening to TI. Do you like any hip hop?

Early hip hop is cool. Especially what was coming out of Philly. Acts like Schoolly D, 3xDope, Hilltop Hustlers. Also, the New York white boys 3rd Base and Beastie Boys. Our first manager worked at Ruffhouse Records and played handclaps on the big Kriss Kross hit, Jump Around. So Young Werewolves have some hip hop cred, not to mention that Nick was one of the top graffiti writers in Philly during the early eighties.

Actually, I found this rapper named Mob Zombie recently that raps about zombies and stuff. I totally am trying to get through to him and he won’t return my emails, tweets, or anything. Maybe it’s because he’s dead.

That’s always the thing with rapping Zombies. Don’t you hate it when hot MC’s go cold?

Sorry, I guess that last one didn’t even include a question… let’s get back on track. I usually like to ask a few questions related to something outside of music and the band’s focus. I’ll start with one I ask a lot: While not a religious person, per se, I consider myself a man of faith, specifically I’m a Christian who isn’t really into the church but am into Jesus. If you wouldn’t mind sharing, what are your beliefs about God or a higher power or whatever?

Faith and religion can be healthy if ingested in moderation. It’s important to believe and have faith in oneself. Not in the ego-centric interest of selfishness but in the interest of creating an imprint that resonates. We are the gods of our creations, like it or not. If belief and faith in a higher power keeps you disciplined and out of trouble than that’s a good thing.

Do you think the music you make is in any way influenced by those beliefs, or on the other hand does it in any way conflict with those beliefs? That is to say, many Christians found it completely heinous when Jerry Only of The Misfits first discussed his being a Christian because of the lyrics and subject matter of many of his songs, but he’d contest to this day that his Christianity is a big influence on what he does as a member of the band.

There are themes we explore in our music that have religious implications, such as redemption, regret and reformation. The monster myth is in itself a reaction to the mysteries of religion. In essence, the monster (either man-made or released by man) symbolizes the Pandora’s Box that religion unchecked can cause. How many wars has man fought in the name of the devil?

Do you think an artist can have beliefs and lives outside of their art that in no way is reflected or influenced in that art?

Absolutely. Art is usually an interpretation, reaction or provocation. An artist is free to explore ideas that are in complete contradiction to their beliefs, in complete accord or anywhere in between. How you judge the person should be separate from how you judge their art. The nicest people sometimes make the shittiest art.

Thank you for indulging me with these questions. Since I’m running dangerously close to 20 questions here, I’d like to steer back to the subject on hand, the music of The Young Werewolves. I am hoping to come out and see you when you hit my home area of Reading, PA. What can I
expect when I come to see you?

There’s usually swing dancing and beer drinking, rock-a-billies and rock-a-betties trying to outdo each other and looking good while doing it. Every once in a while there’s a fight at the bar. Some gigs we play mostly rockabilly versions of covers from the 20’s, 30’s, 40’s, 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, 90’s and 2000’s. Other times we get the groove going with our original songs. Often times it’s a mix.

Where is a great brewery just south of Reading, in Adamstown, called
Stoudt’s Brewery. If you have the chance while you are out this way and want a great meal with some amazing beer, head down. You just strike me as
beer drinkers. Would this be an accurate assessment?

Beer and wine are great loves. Dana definitely appreciates a good wine and both Jonny and Nick like the bubbly suds, although they will pause to lift their snouts from the stout to taste the good grape too.

Okay, so we’ve discussed beer, music, movies, faith, and Sid Haig… seems like a logical time to move on. Let’s wrap this up with a final word from you. What would you like to leave as your final words to the readers?

Stay tuned for a new recording. We are putting together a collection of fun, cool tunes and also some hot new merch too. More mayhem and music is on the way.