Search - Rubber City Rebels :: Pierce My Brain

Label head and long-time Rebels fan, Frank Mauceri boasts "Eventually we may sign a band with members who sleep through the night without waking up to pee. But for the time being, we'll stick with rock-n-roll lifers, like the Rubber City Rebels. They're a band who've made a career out of retro-raunch ala the Ramones, Rezillos, and Runaways, and peeled out 12 hellraisers for the new CD."The Rubber City Rebels have shared the stage with the Dead Boys, Crime, the Dogs, The Knack, Fear and other punk legends. They gave Devo a place to play before they whipped anything. And while the rest of the late '70s Akron scene was admiring abstract painting and blowing saxophones, they were rocking and rolling over faster than a Ford Explorer with a set of Firestones.Bands like Turbonegro, the Candy Snatchers, the Raydios, the Bobby Teens, the Scream, Sister Goddam, and Jackpot paid them tribute by covering their tunes and when the band recently played some gigs, they were floored by just how many young fans they had. "These young punks were coming up to us and giving us the 'we're-not-worthy' treatment," said Rod Firestone, Rebels front man. "They treat us like I would treat Blue Cheer or something. It was freaky."When the band began to play dates around the country throughout 2002, it was the first time in 22 years. Fans witnessed the band's classic, and undoubtedly most punk, Akron line-up of lead guitarist Buzz Clic, guitarist/vocalist Firestone, bassist Bob Clic (who also handles the bass duties for The Lewd), and drummer Mike Hammer (of KBD-cult favorites, Hammer Damage). The band slammed through a set of tunes from all eras of the Rebels' 1976-1982, including a song described by Debra Rae Cohen of Rolling Stone (in a four-star review of their self-titled 1980 Capitol album) as "a Japanese monster flick narrated by Johnny Lydon," entitled "Child Eaters.""The Rebels' original compositions are a raunchy glorification of straight-ahead garage-band combined with lyrics lavishly dosed with caustic wit. They are sneering, arrogant, slightly stupid -- and the funniest act I've seen in quite a while." enthused LA Weekly scribe Nina Fiore in 1977.Today the OC Weekly writes "?maybe they're not so young anymore, but they're still respectably loud and snotty." And the SF Weekly sums it up with "Certainly, no gearhead worthy of his tattoos should miss this band."