Jonny Manak and the Depressives
Rebound Town
Reach Around
Albums like Jonny Manak and the Depressives Rebound Town are the reason I get excited about taking a shot on a band I’ve never heard of.
How many of you have grabbed a disc solely based on the cover, or the band’s name, or the label the band was on? Do people still do that these days? When I was in high school, and just really getting to explore the vast world of music outside of what the radio played, I stumbled upon so many great bands this way! I also found a lot of crap, but the crap only served to reemphasize how great the good shit was!
Rebound Town is the album I was always in search of. A band that was punk rock on the surface, but you just knew were jamming out to their parent’s old 45’s from the ’50s and ’60s at home. A band that could straddle the line between rockabilly and punk without becoming a psychobilly caricature. A band that reminded me of how I felt when I found Social Distortion without sounding like a Social D rip-off.
Jonny Manak is a pro skater (can a tour with Mike V’s Revolution Mother be far off?), he’s in another band called Clay Wheels (that sounds a lot like this band), and his vocal style is somewhere in between Iggy Pop and Keith Morris (Black Flag, Circle Jerks). He writes 2-minute bursts of aggression and fun with lyrics like “every night’s a Friday, every morning is a Monday, hope that I don’t spew,” and sets on a musical search for a world that celebrates rock ‘n’ roll, skating, love – not necessarily in that order.
I can’t write about this album anymore, I’m too consumed with it. In fact, it’s too good – DON’T BUY IT! I want to keep this band all to my greedy little self!
Jonny Manak: http://www.jonnymanak.com
