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HOMETOWN CD REVIEW 10-11-07: Album: Your Underground Artist: Revenge Club Year released: 2007 Label: Roughneck Records Genre: Rock Songs: 1) Clinical 2) Bolts 3) Social Life 4) The Way Sean Drives 5) Witch's Root 6) Your Underground 7) Doug's Getting Wasted 8) Bitchin' Summer 9) Nocturnal 10) It Was Raining 11) Summary 12) Amsterdam 13) Worktime Pessimism 14) Secret |
If this CD were a fight, the judges would stop it because Revenge Club brought a chainsaw to a boxing match. The band plays loose and dirty punk, the way punk was intended. Punk, as a genre, sounds like some kid fumbling through a guitar lesson, getting ever more frustrated with his inadequacy to create structured sound, until he finally stands up, yells, "To hell with this!" and drops his pick through the three heaviest power chords he knows. Frustration relieved with an instantaneous release of anger...the middle finger to everyone Revenge Club takes it even further and aims the finger at even conventional guy-heavy punk by fronting their band with petite blonde Amy Lawson. Her voice rings and whines through the ear-annoying range between a circular concrete saw and a drill bit stuck in a hunk of sheet metal. The band follows the punk template faithfully, grinding out quick, brief, and loud, big damn noise from city kids. Revenge Club is awful, and perfect. |
WRITE UP IN THE SD READER: Bombs Below "I woke up in the tour van in the middle of a field at about 5:00 a.m. to see a sign that said, 'No trespassing, unexploded mines,' " Revenge Club singer Amy Paddack says. "We were on the way back from Lake Havasu, and Sean [Lawson, bassist], after drinking some 32-ounce beers, went joyriding in the middle of the field." Lawson explains, "Driving through Arizona takes you very close to gunnery and bombing ranges that the military uses for training. With everyone else in the van asleep, I decided I couldn't make it any further [without sleep]. I pulled off into a field on the side of the road, and as I drove further in, there was a small white sign. I couldn't really make it out at first. I pulled a little closer...[it read] 'Caution, unexploded munitions, mines or air ordnance. No trespassing allowed.' "I yanked the wheel of the van, hit the gas, and pulled a big donut right there in the middle of Uncle Sam country." The jolt awoke the other bandmembers, and Lawson steered the van to the road. "It wasn't until the next morning that the gravity of the situation hit the others, and everyone was calling me a jerk, jerk-off, jerk-face...you get the picture." Revenge Club plans a CD-release party for Thursday, July 19, at the Kensington Club. "After that, our drummer is moving back to the East Coast," says Paddack, "in case anyone out there is brave enough to audition." -- Jay Allen Sanford |
WRITE UP IN THE SD READER: Love Is Blind Melon's At Blind Melons on November 11, "We had just finished playing a song, 'The Way Sean Drives,' where I make fun of his crazy driving," says Revenge Club singer Amy Paddack of bass player Sean Lawson. "He got down on one knee right there on the stage and proposed into the microphone! I said 'yes' onstage, but off-mike I told him I was gonna kill him." The duo plan a spring wedding in Las Vegas. Paddick (formerly of the all-girl band Brag Doll) says the Blind Melons gig was more pleasant than the one at downtown's Honey Bee Hive on November 4; a fight in the audience resulted in an early finale. "We just stopped in the middle of a song. Our drummer's friend was getting punched out there, and [the drummer] ended up jumping into the audience to join the fight." Paddick says police were summoned, and although no arrests were made, "That closed the bar down." Revenge Club appears December 17 at the Zombie Lounge. -- Jay Allen Sanford |
WRITE UP IN SD CITY BEAT: Staged wedding - For Amy Paddack, lead singer of punk-rock quartet The Revenge Club, her band’s Nov. 11 gig at Winston’s was more memorable than most, if not very punk rock. “We had just finished playing ‘The Way Sean Drives’—a very fast song about [bassist Sean Lawson’s] crazy driving style,” Paddack recalled. “He got down on one knee and proposed into the microphone. “Sean hadn’t told our other two bandmates or any of our friends, so everyone was pretty surprised. Our drummer launched into a solo while we were getting our bearings back, so everyone just started screaming and clapping. It was great!” Paddack accepted Lawson’s offer, and the newly minted fiancés proceeded to finish out the one song left in Revenge Club’s set. “I think I repeated the same verse three times because my head was pretty cloudy at that point,” Paddack said. In other Revenge Club news, the band’s song “Dove Stinger” will be included on the next Arm the Pit compilation CD due out next month. Subtitled Girls Rock Harder, the album will focus on female-fronted bands. The band plays next at the Alibi on Dec. 3. www.revenge club.net. -- Scoop Stevens |
REVIEW BY ANNETTE WARNER, GOGIRLS MUSIC: Those of you wanting to know what’s up and coming in the punk rock scene definitely need to check out this CD. Never - has a 5 song demo filled my ears with as great of a female fronted example of the genre as Shot Myself In The Foot. Guaranteed to please anyone whose idea of a good time is mosh-pitting it with other purveyors of punk. These are the type CD’s I give away to venues that book it – but only when I know it’s good for the style : ) These guys rock and I can only guess at the voltage they spit out at a live show. |
REVIEW BY MARK HUGHSON, NOW WAVE MAGAZINE: Revenge Club take us back to a simpler time, before '90s punk became splintered into metal, emo, and polished mall punk. This is straight-up punk rock with edgy riffs, bang-it-out drumming, and spastic rhythms. If a couple of chords and a decent voice is all you look for in punk rock, make a mental note about Revenge Club. Amy screams as good as any punky diva, and the guitars shoot through the songs like a machine gun. The speedy guitar solos (reminding me of Adrenalin O.D.) are simultaneously hair-raising and unnecessary, but they're never spotlighted enough to seem wanky. There weren't THAT many female-fronted bands back during the '90s punk revival, so why not check out what you might have missed? I'll also leap to a limb and recommended this to fans of Bikini Kill and Raooul. |
PUNK BAND OF THE MONTH, SEPTEMBER 2005, BABES IN BOYLAND: "The punk band of the month: Revenge Club, from San Diego, with a fat, efficient sound and hammering drums." -Babes in Boyland |
FROM OUR PREDICTIONS, SD CITY BEAT: Forecasting the future of local music Revenge Club will switch from being a club to a troop. They will also start selling cookies and going on camping trips. This will be considered very punk-rock by those in the know-and Brownies. |
FROM STORIES MUSICIAN INTERVIEWS, SD READER 9-3-08: Marriage and a Band By Josh Board |
SAN DIEGO CITY BEAT, THE GREAT DEMO REVIEW 2009 Revenge Club, 9-Song Demo, by Ron Summers Revenge Club has been one of the city’s better female punk bands for a while, in classic Stooges style with a vocalist who sounds like she swallows her own loogies for breakfast. They won’t make anyone forget Seven Year Bitch, but these songs are pleasant additions to any “S.D. Vag-Punk!” soundtrack. MS/revengeclub. |
Junior's Cave WRITE-UP, 4.21.09 |