I have been hearing updates on American Pulverizer for months now, but it took me until November to finally see them.
Guitarist/vocalist Marky Mussel (x-Two Saints/Marky Mussel and the Clams/Varmint/Fugitives) first told me about the band at one of Clamarama honcho and all-around good guy Jay Allen's infamous summer pool parties: he and Kenny Chambers (x-Bullet LaVolta/Moving Targets/Dredd Foole & The Din) were working on a new outfit doing rock n' roll most along the lines of Bullet LaVolta, two magic words to my ears. Since Marky had been involved in the closest thing to a Bullet LaVolta reunion (the Moving Targets plus Marky and Kurt Davis, ahem, Yukki Gipe, doing B LaV "covers" for the WMBR Pipeline! anniversary extravaganza in 1999), the connection made sense to me. Marky also didn't hide the fact that he'd recently been pushing the songs of Scandinavian powerhouse Turbonegro on Kenny, which only fueled my anticipation. Then, Marky dropped the bomb: "We're doing 'Dead Wrong'." This is a classic, hard-hitting Bullet LaVolta tune that Kenny penned, so on that drunken summer night, I was already chomping at the bit to wrap my ears around anything by this band.
"As soon as you guys have ANYTHING recorded," I implored, "Get it to me!" See, outside my selfish interest in feeding my hunger for rock, I produce this radio show on WMBR called The Late Risers' Club (I host Fridays 10 a.m. to noon) and I knew without hearing a single note that American Pulverizer would be a vital new band to blast over our airwaves. Thing is, they waited until they were wire-tight before they took things public, and now finally, they are delivering the goods.
For now, the goods are strictly coming live. This is not a bad thing for which to settle, as this rock-solid outfit proved to me, and several dozen others, at TTs on the night before Thanksgiving. What we learned is this: American Pulverizer is THE definition of loud, melodic rock n' roll precision. Yes, the sound smacks of Bullet LaVolta, but 'Dead Wrong' is rivaled in excellence by the new material. This is clearly not merely Kenny Chambers with three hired guns. Kenny takes lead vocals on most of the songs, but the devastating guitar leads are equally shared with Marky, who also happens to do formidable lead vocals on a couple of numbers. And the rhythm section hammers like clockwork. Pat Moynihan (who hails from stony heavyweights Gimantis) looks like a young Lemmy and delivers the same kind of bass thunder as the aforementioned Brit-metalpunk warhorse. Drummer Will Wrynn (x-Under The Influence/Plank/Fast And Bulbous, Lynn native like Marky who works as a recording engineer in real life, nails the traps with deft accuracy.
Kenny was right when he told me one night at The Cambridgeport that "there's not much jangle" (referring to the Moving Targets' -- Boston's sadly unsung answer to Husker Du -- trademark sound) but the melodic power in the vocals of American Pulverizer can't help but remind me of the Targets at their most blistering (think "In The Way", "Almost Certain", or "Funtime").
I am still waiting for that demo, but after seeing American Pulverizer live and knowing that recordings are in the works, I am quite willing to do so. In the interim, you should do what I plan to do: go see this band the next chance you get. This time, the gun knows it is loaded, the targets are fixed, and the band is ready to kill. Boston rock is in a great state right now, but something loud and visceral has been missing among all the great garage renaissaince, pop craftsmanship and punk spew going on. American Pulverizer is exactly the band to fill that void. Rest assured: you will be Pulverized.
- Tim Kelly WMBR.
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