************************************************************
These are comments from people who bought the record.
As a lifelong fan of hard guitar music, having cut my teeth on KISS in 1974 and living through every incarnation of hard rock since, I had nearly surrendered. I had determined that junk metal like Korn and Linkin Park was all we were ever going to get. The labels had finally won. Talent no longer mattered. Attitude was replaced by corporate blandness. True rock and roll fans were being phased out like Betamax machines.
Then I stumbled across these guys.
OK, so they look like Everclear...Salvation Army clothes and buzzcuts. One listen and my foot started tapping. By the second track I was gazing at my speakers wondering if I was really hearing what I thought I was hearing. And these were the 30 second samples. I had to get this CD.
This is what Nickelback wants to be. They'll never be this good though. NAS has restored my faith that yes indeed, some of our nephews and kid brothers' friends were actually listening to real rock and roll. Strong vocals, driving rhythm, and chainsaw guitars to spare. The lyrics are clever enough and at times predictable enough. If I want Shakespeare I'll read a book. If I want to be entertained I want something like this CD. I won't try to say who they "sound like" because every review I've seen of this CD that tried missed by a mile. It's gonna make you smile, it's gonna rock your speakers, and it's gonna get stuck in your head.
Rock and roll is not a political forum. It is not the place to preach global warming nonsense or rail against the president. Rock and roll was always meant to be one thing, first and foremost, over everything else. It was meant to be fun. This disc is fun. It's fun like your high school dances (and more likely, the escapades that followed) were fun. It's fun like 80mph in a Mustang convertible is fun. It's fun like sneaking out of the job at noon to catch the football bowl game at Hooter's is fun. You get the idea.
There are precious few bands left that still understand what rock and roll is meant to be. This was one of them. Probably why they never made much of a splash. Label was too busy making Ashlee Simpson a one hit nobody to realize what music fans really want. In that respect, nothing has ever really changed. So I'd advise anybody who likes good music with some edge and attitude to get this while you can. You won't be disappointed.
Oh, Hell Yeah!, September 16, 2007
By Steve (Hell's Acres, SC)
This thing snarls like a cornered, three legged dog that just ain't backin' down no more. If you dig AC/DC, Rhino Bucket and Dirty Looks, but wish they would spit more venom, boy is this record for you. More austere than contemporaries like Supagroup, Jet, or BuckCherry, and too "sex pistOls" in their delivery for AOR radio, this record kind of fell through the cracks. Make it your dirty little secret....
This cd rocks hard!!!!!!, October 10, 2005
By Steve Bertram
New American Shame Totally rocked hard when they were around a short time sorry to say!! This cd is a must for all rockers! All I have to say cuz I know these guys is John & Jimmy pull your heads out and start this band again!!!!!!!!!!!!! Steve
Spanaway, Wa.
An ignored hard rock masterpiece, March 1, 2005
By Christopher Hivner Dallastown, PA
To say this CD rocks is an understatement. This CD will kick your butt. The guitar blasts right down into your soul. It kills me that this is the only CD this band made before breaking up. Unfortunately they came around at a time when rap-rock was coming into fashion and no one was listening. If you like bluesy hard rock in the vein of Crue, G n' R or Cinderella, buy this CD, you will not be disappointed. Everytime I listen to New American Shame I spend the rest of the day singing the songs. Down in the Valley, New American Shame and Rather Be Rich are a few of the best.
I bought this CD after seeing the band open for the newly reformed Cult at Avalon in Boston. I'm pretty jaded after 20 years of concert-going and it takes a lot to impress me, but this band completely rocked the house. The vocalist has a particularly good, clear delivery. I was a little disappointed that the CD sounds a little too smooth and "produced" and thus didn't have quite the raw energy of the live show (often the case), but it comes close enough.
Excellent CD by a great new band, August 13, 1999
New American Shame are a great new band out of Seattle and their self titled debut album truly ROCKS! This cd quickly became one of my favorites after I purchased it. At first the only reason I bought it was because it was cheap and I liked the first single "Under it All". However, when I listened to it for the first time I was blown away by the energy and intensity New American Shame rock with on this cd. Jimmy Paulson's solos are increadible and the vocals are great. If you like true hard rock, then you'll love this cd!
Have you ever daydreamed about life as a Hell's Angel? Have you ever wanted to hop on a Harley without a helmet, rev the engine and trek across the country's backroads with the wind ripping through your shoulder-length locks? If "Live To Ride, Ride To Live" is your motto, then New American Shame is your soundtrack. The gasoline-drenched vocals of Johnny Reidt might have been ripped from vintage AOR airwaves, but they're set ablaze here and aided by New American Shame's sweltering chops and torrid guitar solos. Though the band sounds like the bastard child of German metal warlocks the Scorpions and Southern rock 'n' boogie kingpins the Black Crowes, Reidt and his boys have somehow breathed new life into arena rock. These easy riders are armed with the type of foot-stomping anthems that many of today's so-called "rock" bands sorely lack.
Amy Sciarretto
Thank You All More Than You'll Ever Know
Johnny, Singer of New American Shame
American Shame is the band's definitive statement of intent, and of course, it rocks like crazy. Riding on razor-sharp 80s metal riffs and a punk snarl, American Shame sounds like some kinda supersized grunge, if grunge knew how to fight. Its got a chorus that could split mountains, and an attitude that you'd cross the street to avoid, and memorable lines like Id tie my shoes, if I had someone to lean on. Honestly, it's one of my all-time favorite rock and roll songs, and when I finally croak, I hope you play this one at the funeral. And, when people ask you, I also hope you tell them that, On an average day, in every way, I was America's shame. Because I am, we all are, and this song is such a rousing declaration of such, such a brilliantly scripted acceptance speech from hell, that it almost makes ya feel proud to be a sleazebag. If you've ever bled in public, baby, this one's for you.
Down in the Valley is one of the tracks originally slated for the EP, and it sounds like the kinda thing youd write in the back of the van somewhere out on the endless road. Its a dirty, crunchy rock and roll song that smells of sweat and asphalt. Its about banging groupies named Sadie, far as I can tell. Is there any woman still alive named Sadie?
Rather Be Rich is another EP track, and its one of their best. It absolutely oozes sleaze, comes off like a smoky Backyard Babies/Cult hybrid, and just tells it like it fuckin is, baby. In a Cracktorch-like flurry of call and response venom, the Shame lays it on the line: Id rather be rich/Shower me in money/Aint nothing wrong with stackin them up/ A million Benjamins might be enough. Makes ya wonder why they didnt stick around to collect.
Speaking of sticking around, if they did, maybe Skin Up, the title of the next track, would have made it into the cultural lexicon. Of course, theyd have to explain what it means- I think theyre either asking for drugs or money on this very GNR-esque raunch n roller, but who knows? Are you like me?/ Lets see/Get me/Skin up. Well, alright, Ill try. Its fun to say, at any rate.
Something Right is another EP track, and another invitation for a one-way trip to knuckle city. Sounding every bit as much as Guns and AC/DC as it surely wants to, its a brawling, drawling ode to all things bad ass, with a good news/bad news message: Youre cooler than you seem to be/but you aint as cool or tough as me. You know, just in case you were wondering. But dont worry, because Johnnys gonna set you straight two songs over.
First, though, theres Sex Teen. I think its about jerking off, and if you can imagine Sub Pop signing a cock rock band, thats what it sounds like. Oh, and the opening line goes, Major dog, major dog/Dont lose your look, and although it really has nothing to do with the rest of the song, and probably doesnt really mean anything, it still strikes me as very cool thing to say. As soon as Sex Teen is over, Johnny shows you how its done with the last EP track.
Lesson in Cool with a grungy pop metal riff that sounds like Weezer-as-a-biker-gang, New American Shame take you back to school with this bitchin arena rocker. Ok, so its more like they're pointing their fingers at you, threatening to teach you a lesson in cool, but still. Anyway, just listening to it will ultimately make you cooler, so maybe thats the lesson. At any rate, the song rocks, and the line That last confession/just wont disappear is so fuckin true, I can hardly stand it.
Auburn is the Shames ode to the suburban communities they were brought up in, and if you've ever heard the similarly themed Sweet Home Suburbia by Hanoi Rocks, youll recognize the message: the suburbs are cold, both emotionally and temperature wise, but they're good for beer, and forming rock and roll bands. I suppose if you're from the suburbs yourself, you probably already know this. Personally, I'm from the city, but I have gotten drunk in the woods with teenage metal dirtbags in the suburbs a few times in my younger days, and I'm pretty sure I would've blown my head off if I had to stay. Or maybe I would've put together a rock n roll band. One or the other. Anyway, it sounds kinda like the Screaming Trees battling it out W.A.S.P, if you can imagine such a thing.
Doghouse closes the New American Shame supersonic storybook with Southern riff n roll and- sure- AC/DC crunch, and treads similar waters as D.A.D.s Rim of Hell, in that its about a rock club that kills people. The guitars squeal in a shuddering climax, Johnny screams You say you won't, but youll keep coming back!-which is entirely true- and a rock legend is made. Right the fuck on. All I can say is, if youre not ready to get dangerous after this one, then you just aint got no danger in you.
Like I mentioned before, this one still gets written off as an AC/DC rehash, but its more than that, believe me. My first nail-biting, post-rehab year was a soul-burning bitch, and I listened to New American Shame for almost every hyper-intense day of it. When I started writing again- on the backs of paper placemats in a homeless shelter, dead center in a Boston ghetto, this record was blasting in my closely guarded walkmans. I would walk for miles and miles to save on bus fare just so I could buy batteries, and keep my sanity through songs like Broken Bones and Under it All. Big, Dumb rock and roll records can save your fuckin life, man. This one sure saved mine.
