Black -n- Blue-Rarities, 2007

It's "Leftovers week" here at my blog and here is the first offering.

This album just came out a few weeks ago and includes demos, live and previously unreleased material from this LA band. For all reviews this week I will go song by song to give you the best idea of what's on the albums. The first five tracks here are demos from 1983. I am unsure if these are the same versions that appeared on the "Demos remastered anthology" album or not because I have not heard that album.


1. Violent Kid-I always heard this one described as being a representation of a heavier sound the band had before being signed. It is heavy for them, but a little repetitious. The version of this song on "One night only-Live" from 1998 is a little better. Still decent though.
2. Sign in Blood-Another early track that never made it on an album. It's slightly heavier than much of their debut yet it's in the same style as well.
3. Wicked Bitch-Slightly different version of one the best songs from their debut.
4. Gold Heart-The sound quality is noticeably lower than the other tracks from 1983. It's an okay song, not really anything special.
5. Hold on to 18-Good song, but this version is almost the same as the lp version except for the sound quality.
6. Lickety Split-This one is from 1986 so I guess it was done during the sessions for "Nasty nasty". I like it a lot it has a real fun feel to it and it's fairly unique. It would have fit in fine on "Nasty nasty".
7. Serious Drag-This is the first of three songs recorded for the proposed "Hell Yeah"album in 2002 that never saw the light of day. It was billed as a reunion album, but Jamie St. James is the only original member listed in the credits here. Anyway this song is the best of the three.
8. So Long-The second track from 2002 is a bit more serious than their older material. It's pretty good, but not a lot in common with how the band sounded in the 80's.
9. Hell Yeah-It's an okay song, but just not a lot of fire or fun to it.
10. Autoblast [Live] and 11. I'm the King [Live] - These are great live versions of songs from the debut recorded at a show in Detroit in 1984. The only problem is they are the same versions that are on "Live in Detroit 1984" which I already have.



So overall it wasn't worth what I paid for it. Most of the best songs I already have or have better versions. If you have never heard this band before than I would suggest their self-titled debut or their third album "Nasty nasty". If you have all the studio albums and want more then I would recommend both the "Live in Detroit 1984" and "One night only-live" albums although they are little harder to come by. Really I would only recommend this album to completests and I would suggest waiting a bit and trying to find a used copy of it for a cheaper price. Still listening to this did cause me to pull out some of my other Black -n-Blue Cd's