Having secured the reputation as a sizzling hot live act, Walker Brigade will finally be releasing their anxiously-anticipated first full-length album. Available May 27th, “If Only” includes offerings from most of the Los Angeles band’s 2017 mini-album, “Animal Therapy,” plus digital download singles previously issued by the Big Stir label, as well as new material and bonus tracks.
Consisting of vocalists and guitarists Tracy Walker and Jeff Charreaux, bassist Mark Fletcher and drummer Craig Tykra, Walker Brigade produces an immensely powerful sound that blends artsy punk incentives with jarring pop rock maneuvers. Brandishing both ability and attitude, the band thrives on the kind of paranormal rapport found in uniquely great groups.
Piloted by a feral intensity, “If Only” is a noisy but wonderously melodic affair, with songs such as “No,” “Tower,” “Fallout,” “Disease” and “Choker” zoning in on Walker Brigade’s flair for fusing nail-biting tempos and expressions with user-friendly undercurrents. Split somewhere between quirky roots rock and hook-happy garage punk, the cocky swagger of “V.D. Doll” and the loose-limbed rumble of “Fancy Boots” plug in as further winners on the album, along with the properly titled “Shake Shimmy,” which hustles and bustles to a hip-grinding beat.
Awash with shifting rhythms, pinching breaks and tantalizing twists and turns as a whole, “If Only” discharges one surprise after another. But a cover of “I’m Tired” – which was initially sung by Madeline Kahn in the 1974 box office blockbuster “Blazing Saddles” – testifies to be an especially unexpected treat. Tracy’s vocal performance on the tart and raunchy cabaret corker is absolutely phenomenal, as her phrasing, range and passion is stretched to extremes.
A rendition of Wire’s kinetic “Sand In My Joints” also appears on “If Only,” while the gig wraps up with a number not listed on the set. Slyly coined, “Rock And Roll Toilet” makes the Sex Pistol seem tame by comparison. Devised of two grungy chords, a hoarse growl and super trashy drumming, the hidden cut is the real thing – just like Walker Brigade. Raw, authentic and pulsing with mind-exploding singing and playing, “If Only” may have been worth the wait, but let’s hope the band’s next album arrives sooner than later!
I don’t remember any of the details (like whose idea it was or where the idea appeared), but some time back, someone in one of the online DC Comics groups I frequent challenged fellow fans to come up with a Pre-Crisis DC Comics New 52. That is, a hypothetical slate of 52 comic book series set in the DC Comics continuity that existed prior to the 1985-1986 mini-series Crisis On Infinite Earths, a series which wiped out the multiple universes that had been DC’s playground up to that point. Worlds will live! Worlds will die! And the DC Universe will never be the same!
The idea here was to create a new DC line-up based in the old DC continuity. One of DC’s latter-day relaunches was called The New 52, so this would be the new Old 52, drawing on characters and concepts that DC had before the Crisis. I liked the idea, and started jotting down possibilities. I wound up with way more than just 52.
I mean, way, way more than just 52.
Rather than attempt a self-edit–because really, what fun would that be?–I figured I’d just list the whole mess right here:
Action Comics
Action Heroes
The Albatross
Adventure Comics
All-American Western All-Star Comics
All-Star Squadron
Ambush Bug
Angel And The Ape Aquaman The Atom Bat Lash
Batgirl Batman
Beowulf: Dragon Slayer Beware The Creeper
Black Lightning
The Black Orchid
The Black Spider Blackhawk The Blue Beetle
Blue Devil The Brave And The Bold
The Bronze Tiger
Bulletgirl Captain Atom And Nightshade
Captain Thunder The Challengers Of The Unknown
Claw The Unconquered
The Crimson Avenger DC Comics Presents
DC’s Imaginary Stories
Deadman
The Demon
Dial H For HERO
The Doom Patrol
Doorway Into The Unknown
Dr. Fate
Firestorm
The Flash
Forbidden Tales Of Dark Mansion Freedom Fighters
G.I. Combat
Green Arrow And The Black Canary Green Lantern Hawkman
Hercules Unbound
Hourman House Of Mystery
The Human Target
Ibis The Invincible
Inferior Five
Jason’s Quest
Jimmy Olsen
The Joker
Jonah Hex
Judo Master
Justice League Of America
Kamandi
Kid Eternity
Kobra
Legion Of Super-Heroes
Lois Lane
The Maniaks
The Martian Manhunter
‘Mazing Man
Metal Men Metamorpho Mister Miracle Mystery In Space
Nemesis The New Gods
Newsboy Legion
Ninja The Invisible
Nubia Of The Amazons
OMAC Our Army At War The Peacemaker
The Phantom Stranger
Plastic Man
Plop!
The Question
Ragman
Rima The Jungle Girl
Robin Rose And The Thorn
Scribbly And The Red Tornado
Secret Origins
The Secret Six Secret Society Of Super-Villains
Seven Soldiers Of Victory Sgt. Rock
Shade The Changing Man Shazam!
Shazam’s Squadron Of Justice Showcase
Slam Bradley
Son Of Vulcan The Spectre
Spy Smasher
Stanley And His Monster
Star Hunters Star Spangled War Stories
Starfire Strange Adventures
Sugar & Spike
Suicide Squad Super-Team Family
Supergirl
Superman
Swamp Thing
Swing With Scooter
The Teen Titans
Thriller
Tomahawk
The Trident
The Unknown Soldier
The Vigilante
Vixen Warlord
Weird War Tales
Wildcat
The Witching Hour
Wonder Woman
World’s Finest Comics
Young Love
Zatanna
As a Silver and Bronze Age kid, my specific yearning is for the DC Universe as it existed in the ’60s and ’70s, but I also included some ’80s titles, as well as the 1960s Action Heroes that DC bought from Charlton Comics in the ’80s. Given my druthers, this line would also include some licensed titles, from The Adventures Of Jerry Lewis through Tarzan, The Shadow, Hot Wheels, and Captain Action. Plus the former Charlton book E-Man, which DC never published nor had rights to publish, but what can I say? I like E-Man! But that’s all well outside the parameters of this exercise.
In my imagination, these are written and drawn by creators like Nick Cardy, Jim Aparo, Tony Isabella, Trevor Von Eeden, Murphy Anderson, Neal Adams, Denny O’Neil, Steve Englehart, Marshall Rogers, Terry Austin, Joe Kubert, Nestor Redondo, Michael Uslan, Bob Rozakis, Curt Swan, Ramona Fradon, Bob Haney, Mike Grell, Steve Skeates, Dick Giordano, Sal Amendola, Paul Levitz, Mark Evanier, Dan Spiegle, Jack Kirby, Len Wein, Gerry Conway, Jose Luis Garcia Lopez, Alex Toth, Mike W. Barr, Don Heck, Wally Wood, Don Newton, Gray Morrow, Mike Sekowsky, Dick Dillin, Martin Pasko, Roy Thomas, Jerry Ordway, Kurt Schaffenberger, Arnold Drake, Irv Novick, George Perez, Dave Cockrum, Frank Robbins, Rich Buckler, Berni Wrightson, Gene Colan, Mike Kaluta, Joe Orlando, Bob Oksner, E. Nelson Bridwell, Marv Wolfman, Joe Staton, Walt Simonson, Archie Goodwin, Carmine Infantino, Dick Sprang, Michael Netzer, Gil Kane, Steve Ditko, Marvel Comics stalwarts John Romita and John Buscema, latter-day lights such as Steve Rude and Darwyn Cooke, and a long list of more. Many of these creators are no longer with us. But if one is going to fantasize, one should shoot for the stars.
A few points to clarify. Starfire is the ’70s DC sword and sorcery heroine, not the 1980s Teen Titan. The Albatross was an aborted 1975 back-up series that would have been written by Martin Pasko, who hated the idea and did his successful best to sabotage it. Ninja The Invisible, Vixen, and Captain Thunder were all era-appropriate DC books that were proposed but never realized, with the latter writer Roy Thomas’ idea for an Earth-1 reboot of the original Captain Marvel as an African-American hero.
Batgirl, the Black Orchid, Black Spider (a Batman villain), Bronze Tiger, Bulletgirl, Dr. Fate, Hourman, Nemesis, Nubia, the Question, Robin, Rose and the Thorn, the Seven Soldiers of Victory, Shazam’s Squadron of Justice, Slam Bradley, and Wildcat (I’m thinking this would be the Earth-1 Wildcat) were DC properties that never starred in their own pre-Crisis DC books. The pulp-reminiscent Crimson Avenger was chosen here as a substitute for The Shadow.Jason’s Quest and The Maniaks had appeared in DC’s Showcase in the ’60s. There was never a book called DC’s Imaginary Stories, nor a Charlton characters team-up series called Action Heroes, but there should have been. I also wanted to have genres beyond my superhero favorites, hence the inclusion of humor, horror, science fiction, Western, war, and romance titles. If I could have justified throwing in a 100-Page Super Spectacular, I woulda, but even flights of fancy need some sense of tethering.
(The need for tethers didn’t prevent me from listing The Trident, a World War II-set comics series I submitted to DC in the ’80s. The perks of having your own blog. The Trident came about when I asked myself the question, “What if Joe Simon and Jack Kirby had created a two-fisted black superhero in the ’40s?,” and then attempted to answer that rhetorical query. You’re free to ignore the Trident; DC certainly did.)
So that’s the director’s cut of my Old 52, imagining a new pre-Crisis DC Comics. It’s not worth the effort to try to whittle this down to a mere 52, and I betcha everyone from Sargon the Sorcerer to Super-Turtle to the Mind-Grabber Kid is queuing up to expand the line after successful appearances in Showcase. Bigger worlds live. Nobody dies. A new old DC universe. Just imagine.
You can support this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon, or by visiting CC’s Tip Jar. Additional products and projects are listed here.
This Is Rock ‘n’ Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read about our history here.
Born on this day in 1908, in Indiana, Pennsylvania, actor James Stewart. Stewart had a long and storied career, but is perhaps best remembered for his collaborations with director Frank Capra. The duo worked together on It’s A Wonderful Life, Mr. Smith Goes To Washington and You Can’t Take It With You.
Born on this day in 1945, in Chiswick, England, musician and songwriter, Pete Townshend, of The Who. Townshend wrote dozens of now-classic songs with that band, including; I Can’t Explain, Pinball Wizard, Who Are You, and Baba O’Reilly. At 77 years of age, he shows no signs of slowing down.
Born on this day in 1897, in Sicily, Italy, film director, Frank Capra. Capra had a string of successful pictures in the 1930’s and 40’s, including; It’s A Wonderful Life, It Happened One Night, You Can’t Take It With You and Shop Around The Corner.
