Lesser of two evils

Another Lesser of two evils is upon us and this time Rob from Hard Rock Hideout volunteered to do this one with me. We have...

Junkyard-s/t (1989)

vs.
Noisy Mama-Everybody has one (1991)

MM-Both of these bands kind of emerged when hard rock bands seemed to be pouring out of everywhere. Junkyard got a little notice and an obvious push because they were on Geffen and Tom Werman produced it. Noisy Mama kind of went unnoticed as they emerged in during the final times of hair metal’s prime and they were bit of a faceless band that kind of got swept away rather quickly. However they were on a major in Atco (division of Antlantic) and I remember their album cover on a full page ad in RIP magazine back in the day. While listening to these two CDs my biggest problem was that I couldn’t remember a whole about either one. I listened to them and maybe three days later I went to write my part of this feature and I could not remember enough about either band so I had to go back and listen to them again. This time I made sure to do the write-up the same day in order to avoid having to listen to these two releases again.

Rob Rockitt : I must admit, much like Mark, I haven’t listened to either Junkyard or Noisy Mama for a long time. I remember Junkyard’s single, Hollywood from MTV, and as far as Noisy Mama goes, I had no recollection, other than them being somewhat of an AC/DC clone.

Vocalists-
MM-So it’s David Roach for Junkyard going against Paul Skowron for Noisy Mama. David Roach at his best is sort of like Taime Downe meets Bon Scott and at his worst he is like a bunch of mediocre late 80’s/early 90’s hard rock vocalists whose names are not that important. He can hold a tune well enough, but he’s not going to overwhelm you or reel you in that easily. He also sounds far more comfortable on the medium paced songs than he does on the slower ones. Paul Skowron must have wanted to impressions when he was a kid because he seems to be trying to bring in elements of all kinds of bigger name hard rock singers. Unfortunately he’s not copying them very well and he is not doing my ears any favors either. He can hold a tune to some extent, but he hurts the music by trying too hard to be like what he thinks a “rock singer” should do.
Point to Junkyard

Rob Rockitt: After playing Junkyard’s debut again, I was surprised of the sleazy sound of David Roach’s voice. He kind of reminds me of Jizzy Pearl from Love / Hate somewhat. He has a very limited range, but in the case of Junkyard’s 3 chord rock, he doesn’t need much. His voice fits well with the music.
Paul Skowron’s style is not one that I can put a finger on. He has a little bit of rasp in his voice, but his style isn’t exactly sleaze. His voice isn’t as coarse as Brian Johnson’s from AC/DC. He isn’t terrible, but not what I would consider great either. I think Roach’s voice has more depth.
Point to Junkyard



Guitarists-
MM-We have Brian Baker and Chris Gates for Junkyard vs. Jimmy Gumina and David Scott of Noisy Mama. Both bands are fairly basic in this category and some of the influences are the same. Both have some obvious Angus Young moments and both bands wish they were good blues hard rock bands. However the reality is that Junkyard guitarists do enough to keep from sinking in a sea of mediocrity, but not a whole lot more. Almost twenty years after the fact and I still don’t know why punk rock legend Brian Baker threw in with this band. Noisy Mama’s guitarist also have some alright rhythms initially, but they just don’t do enough to keep the songs going and no one else in their band can really pick up the slack either.
Point to Junkyard

Rob Rockitt: Junkyard seems to stay on that bluesy borderline sleaze, hard rock. It is three chord rock with very few solos. Noisy Mama kind of sounds as if they want to be a Faster Pussycat playing AC/DC. For whatever reason they come across sounding like a pub rock band, and while I like this style of music, Noisy Mama’s guitar tandem of Jimmy Gumina and David Scott does not overwhelm me. Junkyard’s songs have a bluesy touch, and in my opinion, the guitar work is much better. There are a lot more solos present. At times this music reminds me of Cinderella’s style on their later releases.
Point to Junkyard

Rhythm section-
MM-Junkyard’s rhythm section is bassist Clay Anthony and drummer Patrick Michael Muzingo and they are up against bassist Chris Merulla and drummer Tommy Rich. Yeah, I don’t really hear the bass much on either album. Actually both drummers are alright enough, they keep things going through different paced tracks. I think the good production values on both albums help both drummers. After several plays I still didn’t see one as being better or worse than the other.
Tie

Rob Rockitt: The Rhythm section for Junkyard and Noisy Mama are both fairly standard. Both bands have mid tempo to high speed rockers. I don’t hear a whole lot of bass playing from Clay Anthony on most of Junkyard’s songs. I do hear a tad bit more coming from Chris Merulla from Noisy Mama, but just barely. It’s a virtual tie as far as Junkyard drummer Patrick Michael Muzingo and Noisy Mama drummer Tommy Rich goes. Either drummer could stand in for each other, and I doubt you would tell a difference.
Point to Noisy Mama


Originality/Production-
MM-Let’s get the pleasant part over first and that is that both have good production values. No doubt about that although Junkyard might be a hair better. However they are lucky that is part of this category because neither act is going to score high on originality. Junkyard copy AC/DC, ZZ top and other bands to various levels of success although without as much groove as either act. Noisy Mama copy AC/DC and others to slightly lesser levels of success because they seem to be trying too hard, but lack the playing and writing skills needed to pull it off. In a time when every band with long hair and a Marshall stack was getting a record deal, I am not sure why these bands or their management thought they were special enough to make it.
Point to Junkyard

Rob Rockitt: Originality? You are kidding me right? Neither Junkyard or Noisy Mama have a sound that is remotely original. The production quality is about even with both bands, but once again, Noisy Mama kind of sounds like an above average bar band that recorded a CD. Junkyard sounds like a watered down product of the 80’s Sunset Strip sprinkled with a dash of AC/DC. With that being said, I still like them better than Noisy Mama.
Point to Junkyard

Who rocks more?
MM-This category is rapidly becoming more like “which one can I stomach more”. The answer is that although Junkyard are kind of a second rate AC/DC at best, that still beats out Noisy Mama who would be a stretch to be referred to as a third rate AC/DC. Junkyard certainly didn’t tear it up, but they had a few songs that flowed enough to get close to rocking. Noisy Mama hit a few moments, but they have more trouble sustaining a whole song. Noisy Mama just sound like they wanted so bad to play rock star that they sound like they are trying too hard and failing.
Point to Junkyard

Rob Rockitt: When it comes right down to it, I can still play Junkyard’s disc today, and get a little bit of enjoyment out of it. I liked them enough to pick up their second disc, Sixes, Sevens and Nines, and I play that disc from time to time as well.
I did like Noisy Mama’s tunes Dirty Dog, and Million Miles, but the rest of the stuff is fairly standard. I probably wont give their disc a whole lot of play after today. So who do I think Rocks more? Junkyard has the songs that I will listen to more, from time to time. Point to Junkyard.

MM-My scorecard says Junkyard 4, Noisy Mama 0 and one tie.
Junkyard was not that awful, but when you can listen AC/DC and some decent AC/DC copycats like Rhino Bucket and the Four Horsemen then why test your patience with this average pulp? Noisy Mama had maybe one or two songs where I really liked the whole thing and maybe only 1-2 were really bad, but the rest was just so lukewarm and forgettable. It’s very easy to see why this band never made a blip on anyone’s radar.

Rob Rockitt. Junkyard 4, Noisy Mama 1. Junkyard is a solid hard rock act, and they have better songs than Noisy Mama, but not by much. In fact, if you put both discs in your playlist, the songs tend to run together in some cases. Both bands seem to borrow from that AC/DC style of rock. Maybe it is an unfair comparison, but neither band can hold a candle to, Airbourne, who I saw live recently. Both discs are somewhat average, but Junkyard’s is a tad bit better. I owned both of these on cassette, and I now understand why it took me so long to replace these on CD.

****There you go and thanks to Rob for doing this with me. He writes Hard Rock Hideout http://hardrockhideout.wordpress.com/
If you think you have ears of iron, a stomach of steel and feel up to doing a Lesser of two evils with me then you can reach me by using the contact on the upper left hand side of this page.