T.S.O.L. - Hit and Run

Greetings and Salutations! I am Hydro, Your friendly neighborhood music fanatic. The school quarter is over and I feel revitalized and relaxed. I think it’s about time to put in a few CD’s and give my thoughts on them. Tonight we have a scar on punk rock…well the first of many to come. I have heard women say scars are sexy…Not in this case.

American Punk can be a double edged blade. As we know there are some bands that claim the punk label (and uniform), but clearly are in no way true to the movement. I promise I will not rant about that particular subject at this present time. *cough*fuck Good Charlotte*cough* I will, however, rant about one of my favorite second wave U.S. punk bands. Why verbally abuse one of my favorite bands you ask? Well let me tell you why.

The True Sounds of Liberty, or T.S.O.L., were formed under the brilliant sun of Long Beach, California back in 1979. The band formed out of the cluster fuck of an outfit called Vicious Circle. Vicious Circle was more of a gang then anything. Stories of their shows usually ended with riots and blood, not necessarily in that order. I know TSOL shows ended the same way, but Vicious Circle played less music in between their brawling. Young Jack Grisham, who held a plethora of names to help save him from those he angered during this time, was known as the “violent type” of front man. He would wear a dress and combat boots and if a person said something to him he would kick their teeth in. I could bask in individual stories of this band for days, but I shall move forward to my destination. During the early 1980’s T.S.O.L. put out a few classic 7”s and two fantastic full length albums (Dance with Me and Beneath the Shadows). Their music was bi-polar in theme, having a gothic twinge to some and political to others. This sounds like a recipe for some good times, no? Well where did they go wrong you ask?

Many of the early 80’s punk bands were volatile by nature. They trumped the large arena rock bands by being even more wildly out of control. T.S.O.L. thanked a certain church’s P.A. system for helping them. If I remember the story correctly they desecrated that churches altar as well. I have no problem with that, but one must is pushing the limits. I remember reading somewhere that members of this band were even involved in some grave robbery. Now due to all of this extra music activity (and drug use…the punk rock trend) members of this band ended up all over the place. Jack would have to use different names, as seen on much of the original album artwork, and sneak out of town to let things mellow. This is how things change, and boy did T.S.O.L. take a left turn. In 1984 Jack Grisham and Todd Barnes had left the band. To make matters worse Ron Emory and Mike Roche became friends with Guns N’ Roses. This is where the real bitch fest begins.

To replace Jack and Todd we find Joe Wood (Jack Grisham’s brother-in-law) and Mitch Dean, in all of their hair spray laden glory. Just after Guns N’ Roses “Sweet Child of Mine” video came out T.S.O.L. released the not punk album “Hit and Run”. Yes…this is the audio earthquake that is disrupting my brainwaves as we speak. By the time the album came out Ron Emory had quit. I guess he realized what a huge mistake this was too. This left Mike Roche as the sol original member of the band. Oh and yes…this is the most bizarre part. Just before the follow up to “Hit and Run” was released Roche left the band. One would think that this would be the end. Oh, don’t you wish. The band continued with NO ORIGINAL MEMBERS. How the hell does this work. Not one person in the band during this era had ever been involved with punk rock. This line up didn’t just put out 2 albums. They put out four full lengths (with Ron and Mike one at least 2 and half) and a live album. So the whole middle life of the True Sounds of Liberty is nothing than a hair metal nightmare. By rights the only thing that carried the band was the name the original line-up made the first 5 years. Thankfully in 1991 the original line-up reformed and are still playing to this day (minus Todd Barnes who died in 1999, R.I.P.). So now after all of this I get to the review. Let’s take a look at this middle period T.S.O.L. pile of shit called “Hit and Run”.

For shame, Ron Emory! For Shame, Mike Roche! I like to believe they were just experimenting, like former college students I’ve known, with different styles of music. Seriously though, the style goes from a beautifully gothic punk sound to pure leather clad COCK ROCK. This is stunningly and all encompassingly mind fucked. This is so not right it calls for a new word…something…that could describe Jerry Only’s career currently…something…full bodied. Maybe Destrucity will cover this. If you’ve not heard this word then you need to read some comic books that epicly fail. Anyway, Let me stop putting this album off and get to the sucka ass bitch pickle that waits.

Track #1 – “It’s Too Late”: Solid guitars, 4 X 4 on the floor, with that gruff pelvis waving beat, and a mix of AC/DC and Winger guitar riffs. This is no where near as impressive as AC/DC, but just as lame as Winger. The sleeze just rolls off of this album. By the lyrics alone “It’s too late to be my lover” I can just envision tight leather pants and teased hair violating an audience.

Track #2 – “Road of Gold”: This looks up a little bit as Ron Emory’s brilliant song writing shines through. His hollow guitar tone heard on earlier records rings right through the Aquanet symphony. I can hear hints of the doors shining through this. I almost like this song. The draw back is that I very much dislike Joe Wood’s vocals and lyrical content. He’s not as bad as Mr. Glass from the early Pantera years, but even still.

Track #3 – “The Name is Love”: What is it with 80’s cock rock bands and their fucking obsession with wankeresque love songs. This is no ballad, so don’t get that idea. I’d have to cut myself if that ever happened. No this is more of that light AC/DC riffage with Joe Wood’s annoying voice screaming that his name is love. Thankfully Ron Emory writes halfway decent music.

Track #4 – “Dreamer”: AHHHHHHHHHHHH! This song is almost slower than the rest. We are verging on ballad here. Ron’s writing is pretty nice, but this is not T.S.O.L. I am starting to see a theme here that I don’t like. The songs all have the same arrangement. Verse/Chorus/Verse/Chorus/Solo/Breakdown/Chorus…FOR SHAME!

Track# 5 – “Good Mornin’ Blues”: What the fuck is this shit? This is just fuckin odd. No white man should ever sing the fucking blues. Ron can play a riff like no ones business, but…but…but…I’m going to find Joe Wood and step on his god damned testicles. There are a few white men who can pull off the bluesy rock, and this is neither Led nor Zeppelin. Eric Claptin called and said to stop…just stop.

Track #6 – “Hit and Run”: Here we come to the title track of this ear raping. On this song they invoke Electric Mayham and Ratt. Cheesy 70’s organ, a really shitty riff, and lyrics about driving a car really fast…this is every bad cock rock cliché wrapped into a nice little package. And to believe I’m only at the half way point.

Track #7 – “Not Alone Anymore”: I actually really like the music of this song, but yet again it falls short. The arrangement is only augmented by changing from distortion to Ron Emory’s signature hollow guitar. If anything this song leaves you wanting more.

Track #8 – “Sixteen”: Ah…the Rebel from birth song. Shot a man at 15, 16 headed for the gallows. I bet if you go through EVERY single hair metal band from the 80’s catalogue you will find a song that is similar to this. The music is more of the same drivel, tight instrumentation, and Joe Woods annoying throat noise.

Track #9 – “Stay with Me”: Well the beginning of this is promising with some very “Beneath the Shadows” guitar work. However, as soon as Wood opens his mouth the song is ruined by sub par lyrics. The Music invokes one feeling and the lyrics a completely different feeling. This effect could be different person to person. Overall this is an average hair metal song.

Track #10 – “Where Did I Go Wrong”: For the love of all that is good in this dimension...The urban cowboy song. This is invoking BON FUCKING JOVI!??!?!?! Someone get my hammer. I’m going to destroy this vile disk before it hurts anyone else. Yes this is the introspective urban cowboy ballad about how the lyricist has screwed his life to hell and back. I have a feeling Black Flag would have kicked this shit out of these guys if they would have still been together (the album came out in 1987 and Flag broke up in 86).

Track #11 – “You Can Try”: I was hoping I would get away before someone busted out the acoustic guitar. The only thing that could make this worse is if Terry Glass came along and did a duet with Joe Wood. This is mediocre acoustic music to boot. The only punk band that could pull off the acoustic thing was Husker Du (and most of their fans didn’t like it when they did).

As the disk ends I must reflect on what I’ve heard. Could this be worse? Yes, I think that this could have been much worse. I mean have you heard Poison?

Was the instrumentation poor? No, this was a pretty tight band, but I understand why Ron Emory quit after the recording of this album.

How was the song writing? The song writing was completely repetitive and sub par for a T.S.O.L. record…especially in the lyrical department. Joe Wood had delusions of wanting to be in Guns N’ Roses.
In finality go out and get “Dance with me” or “Beneath the Shadows”. Even the original line-up’s material post 91’ is on back track and worth a listen. Someone needs to go find Joe Woods home, apologize to his wife, and proceed to curb stomp him until he looks like a South Park Canadian for helping create this era of T.S.O.L. I won’t be completely unfair to this record. I will give this a 4 out of 10 (5 being average). My reasoning is that the musicians are competent at their instruments and they wrote solid songs…very unoriginal songs, but solid songs none the less.

Now before I go insane from listening to that album (twice no less) I will indulge you in the difference between the two eras. Listening to old T.S.O.L. is like getting a bar of chocolate after being stuck on a deserted island for 7 years.

I’m Hydro and I’ll be back later.


^^^^^^^^^^^Original Line-Up TSOL^^^^^^^^^^^^^^


^^^^^^^^^^^^Joe Woods Abomination - Title Track Hit and Run - live^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^