Ultra-lo-fi raunch from Boston's
Coffin Lids -- even the name signifies their adherence to the same trash-rock aesthetic as the Mummies and
the Cramps -- the 14-track
Rock N Roll is the sort of record you immediately embrace, or just as quickly turn off. An overpowering miasma of stale cigarettes, cheap beer, and sweat hangs thickly over this 33-minute album, and unlike the much more manicured likes of
Jet or
the D4, it doesn't sound like a fashionable aesthetic choice. This album genuinely sounds like it could be a contemporary of the Sonics or the Elastik Band, not least because of the cardboard production, which honestly sounds like a cheap, battery-powered cassette recorder loaded with a three-for-a-buck tape from the discount store was set up in the
Coffin Lids' practice room and turned on. For those not horrified by the authentically muddy sound, songs like the hard-rocking "Nite of the Zombies," and the self-explanatory "Beer and Rock and Roll" are full-bore garage slop that would make the average
White Stripes, fan turn pale and run. ~ Stewart Mason