0 Eddie & the Hot Rods - "Live At The Marquee EP" (Island Records, 1976)

Hi there! Happy new year to every single one of you guys and gals! We 're back, entering our 3rd year's essence; looking forward for mo' action packed music! So, let's get straight to the point. Eddie & the Hot Rods are among those bands I'm still listening constantly in fact since my early teens. And how not? They are kicking some serious asses as i'm reading on gig reviews still! Of course the period from 1975 to 1981 was their landmark and the peak of their hi - powered rock & roll engine. I yet think of their 45 rpm singles and EPs as the better format for buying and hearing them firing in all cylinders! My fave Hot Rods period was when the absolute brat / reincarnation of the ancient blues outlaws, Lew Lewis, blustered this poor harmonica as a full force member but don't look for him in this dynamite. He just sat there for two singles. But the storm wasn't about to simmer down... What's in here is the very definition of punk rock! A pub rock band, casting in the past and finding the lost for many years rock n' roll roots! And when i'm talking about 'roots' i'm not saying the obvious ones (Chuck, Bo etc) just like the rest of their comrades did. These vagrants got a little further though by checking the 60s garage and R&B bands to draw up from there all their primitive instincts! Question Mark & the Mysterians "96 Tears", Bob Seger's best Chuck Berry song that the Man never wrote "Get Out of Denver", Them's "Gloria" and Stones' "Satisfaction" delivered in hyperspeed  and sweat. At the end of 1976, NME journalists vote for this single as the second best of that year. I really wonder what was the first...

Detail: Eddie & the Hot Rods - "Live At The Marquee EP" (Island Records, 1976)

0 Eddie & the Hot Rods - "Teenage Depression" (Island Records, 1976)

Like the Count Bishops, Little Bob Story or the Gorillas, Eddie & the Hot Rods were the links between the tough rhythm & blues explosion of pub rock and the super speed rebellious attacks of punk rock. If you ask, for me the best combination on rock n’ roll! With one foot stompin’ strongly on the Pretty Things' or even the Rolling Stones' early days and the other on the American garage punk forefathers (the Sonics, ? & the Mysterians) - the Hotrods created for three at least years a fuel injected rock n’ roll that had not many rivals or emulators!

On their debut LP “Teenage Depression” one year before the official arrival of British punk movement (1976) with the Pistols, the Clash and all the others, combined the Who’s and the Pretties’ tough enuff riffs and rhythms with a teenage angst that many were about to adopt some months later. Their taste on rock n’ roll through what choose to cover here, says exactly what the influences were for these punks.

Joe Tex’s “Show Me”, Sam Cooke’s “Shake” and of course the Who’s “The kids are alright” makes them look to our eyes like mods that lost their paths!

The homonym track of the album is the absolute punk track! Loud & snotty, anguished to the max with a “No Future” trademark written all over it, again 12 months or so before Johnny Rotten and co.

The ultimate outsiders’ Long Play that came outta Britain during the whole 70s decade! Nevermind the Sex Pistols, here’s Eddie & the Hot Rods!

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Teenage Depression

Detail: Eddie & the Hot Rods - "Teenage Depression" (Island Records, 1976)