Nobody will deny that AC/DC's riffs can shatter concrete and that their boogie rocking blues makes for some good times, but if you're searching for something with lyrical content beyond songs about women's butts and groupies with the clap, Angel City is the band for you. Amazingly huge and known as the Angels in The key to
As a whole, the compositions are strong, with heart bursting riffs, thudding drums, and lyrics concentrating on Neeson's glaring paranoia and Orwellian view of the present. Couplets such as "Hold tight! Big brother/callin' in the name of liberty/Lot's stone take your place/Looks like it's comin' down on me" give you a peak through the keyhole into the scary place that is Neeson's mind.
"No Exit" reigns as the stellar track, with a stunning, hauntingly brutal riff, but every song has its merits including "Can't Shake it," later copied and bastardized by Great White. I have to give Great White credit though, in taking "Can't Shake it", and "Face the Day" from
Face to Face contains some of the Angels best known songs, including their own twisted version of a love song, "Am I Ever to See Your Face Again." Riffs such as those on "Take a Long Line" and "Marseilles," could rest comfortably on any AC/DC album, but what really made Angel City stand out was the range of material they created, from the Velvet Undergroundesque "Out of the Blue" to the raging punk of "Coming Down on Me". Think of them as AC/DC for those with a measurable IQ. -- Racer X
Buy here: Face to Face
Comments
I hid under my bed the first time I got this CD. The songs are insane but so intellegent and thought provoking.
How this band never became bigger than AC/DC or Green Day is beyond me. Guitar crunch , paranoid lyrics and great blues hard rock sing along.
Thanks for the review!
I got also got Darkroom and that is even more insane ....I love it!
Take a long Line sets the tone for guitars in punk overdrive. Awesome song.
Take me away to Marseilles one of the longer Angel City tracks steps into heavy blues rock territory & "Give me a Whiskey don't think twice"!
Shadow Boxer more catchy than a Saturday night bar room brawl. One can imagine a UFC fighter using this as motivational music pre fight.
Can't Shake it obvioulsy about something from the darker side of life. ZZ Top meets the Stones (Some may remember Great White covered this tack)
Waiting for The World. Personal favourite. The song is obviously written with someone in mind and is a hammerhead of sonic assault to the ear drum. Hard and fast.
In summary Face to Face is the sort of CD that makes you want to punch your fist in the air and grab a beer, yet then "start to ask the reason why?".
The speed and intensity of the strumming and crunching of the guitars paired with intelligent lyrics delivered by a madman singer ranks with anything released by any band in the last 30 years.
Also look in the import bin or online under 'The Angels'.
3 other Angel City aka The Angels records worth adding to the collection.
Dark Room (see review on the Ripple Effect)
Two Minute Warning (can't seem to find this review so perhaps The Ripple Effect could do one?)
Beyond Salvation (check out Dogs are Talking)
*Footnote- these guys are back together 40 years later (in 2010 having sorted legal issues) touring Australia as true rock n roll Road Warriors.
I'll get some more Angels reviews up. Promise.
'Aussie Pub Rock' gave the world 3 legendary bands Angel City/The Angels , Rose Tattoo and of course the biggest of them all AC/DC.
Part of the reason they all had that FAT Aussie sound was same production and recording, Alberts in Sydney. With production handled by Vanda & Young(brother of AC/DC guitarists).
I flew out to Australia last year to see Angel City/The Angels on tour. It was funny to see other fans/nuts from Europe and the US who travelled half way around the world just to hear the 'Live by Request Tour' They played all the songs off Face to Face and most of the songs off Dark Room. The look on fans faces said it all- it was AMAZING. They may be old but they are still very loud. Make no mistake these guys are still huge in Australia. In a recent poll the big FM station had 4 songs in the Top 100 of all time.
After the gig at the bar all the band appeared for autograph signings. I spoke to Rick Brewster (the guitarist with shades who doesn't move). Really nice guy seemed interested in the bootleg DVD's I had of some of their gigs. Spoke to singer Doc Neeson in between him signing womens breasts.You can tell he's the smart cookie who wrote all those clever lyrics. And John Brewster who clashes with Doc constantly on and off stage. I got the feeling John still belives they could oneday break the US big. I told him someone will have a hit oneday when they cover Take a Long Line, it prime.
I love AC/DC but there is something a little more special and exclusive about Angel City. As your music taste matures you appriecate Angel City a little more. I've spoken to alot of the 80's metal bands GnR, AC/DC, Great White (covered 2 songs), Kiss, Aerosmith, Motley Crue will all tell you they admired Angel City.
Also Night Attack is worth a review?
I also gotta say, that this may be the first time that a review has been requested for Night Attack, Two Minute Warning and Live Line. I happen to think that Two Minute Warning destroys just about everything else out there. So nasty and violent.
So as soon as I get caught up with other Ripple stuff, I promise I'll get a Two Minute Warning review published. Night Attack to follow.
Then more . . . . if you want.
Thanks so much for reading us.
peace,
But Two Minute Warning was the heaviest and best- Two Minute Warning is a brutal and thought provoking concept Albumn - post nuclear war devastation.
Underground the lead single a forgotten FM classic with a very Mad Max like video. It was Angel City's last serious play in the US and recived high rotation for a few weeks in 1985.Maybe this CD was to heavy, dark and brutal for it's time? Maybe the record company bailed to early? But it sure stacks up when played loud today.
A interesting footnote was some months after Two Minute Warning was released in 1985 MTV broadcast the Australian leg of Live Aid featuring INXS, Angel City, LRB & Men at Work. All thoses bands became household names in the states but one. And anyone reading this will know Angel City deserved much better.
Night Attack was poor. Then Angel City sort of dissappeared until Two Minute Warning flashed up on the radar for a few brief seconds....never to be heard of again until now.
Mystery surrounds.
It would be great if they put a tour to to the states together. Marsellies still finds it's way to classic rock playlists and many others know Face the Day from Darkroom. Although most mistakenly think Great White wrote and recorded it first.
Give me a whiskey- don't think twice
Give me the card that takes my blues away
Take me away to marseilles
Found this on Youtube Marsellies 2010
And I love it!
I'll champion The Angels to anyone who'll listen.
Thanks to your requests, we've got lots more Angels coming. I got reviews of Night Attack, Liveline, and Two Minute Warning coming. Plus I've picked up some great rarities on vinyl, singles, live ep's etc.
Someone get me in touch with the band. Love to interview them!
AC/DC meets the Pistols indeed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O93CoQ5Klt0&feature=related
As The Angels in Australia they are solid gold rock gods.
How The Angels Helped Create Grunge
By Darryl Mason
Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready, in an interview with Kathy McCabe, praises The Angels :
I grew up on (The Angels albums) No Exit and Night Attack...That is the Australian music that meant so much to me, maybe because me and my friends were the only ones who knew them."
When I was interviewing about a dozen young American and UK bands a month for the music press in the early 90s, I had a standard question which went like this :
"Did you hear much Australian rock when you were growing up? Are there Australian bands you count as an influence or inspiration?"
Obviously, AC/DC was an obvious, often answer to that question, and bands like The Scientists, The Birthday Party, The Go-Betweens, The Saints and Radio Birdman were also occasionally cited, but I was always surprised at how many bands listed The Angels for both influence and inspiration. And not just flat-out hard rock bands like Guns N' Roses and Motley Crue.
I'd have to dig through a bunch of boxes to find the article, but I'm pretty sure it was a member of The Melvins who told me that The Angels' 1983 schizophrenic, heavily jammed Watch The Red album and No Exit were something like foundation stones of American grunge. That might sound a little mind-blowing, but you only have to listen to the first albums of Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Mudhoney and Green River to hear the obvious influence The Angels had on these bands, and the grunge sound in general, which, listening back now, really does basically sound like loud cranking 1970s Australian pub rock.
Seems more than a chance of luck as the Angels finiancial fortunes have improved on the back of they reunion tours down under they get sued.
Axl Rose was was putting Eddie Truck in his place by mentioning these bands (Angel City & Rose Tattoo)because Eddie Trunk is just a music industry tool. He knew Eddie Trunk and his co host flunky's what look about as bright as Bart Simpson at Yale when he dropped these bands names in conversation. I bet Eddie Trunk couldn't name an Angel City or Rose Tattoo song.
I personally rate Angel City's Face to Face as one of the best records ever released.
So nice to hear some overseas fans of The Angels. I would recommend that you all try and get the original Australian version of Face to face and the follow up album No Exit. These are excellent albums and, like most Angels fans, I think it is a pity that they were not released in the US as they were here. What you got here was essentially a best of collection up to that point but the albums in their original state are classics and you are missing excellent tracks such as "Outcast", "Dawn is Breaking" and others. These albums have been digitally remastered and sound great.
Also try and get the live DVD "Live at Latrobe 1979" which was just prior to the band going to the US for the first time. There is no better live band than these guys!
Other albums to try are "Howling" "Liveline 99" and 'Skin and Bone" - all excellent, yet different albums.
You can order them online through the following sites:
http://www.jbhifionline.com.au/
http://www.sanity.com.au/
These are big stores here in Australia so you will have no worries getting them.
I am a lifelong fan, having seen them live about 12 or so times and i think one of the comments on here is quite right in that overseas nobody really understood a short haired, hard rock band with deep, cryptic lyrics. These guys were intentionally different to most hard rock bands and I think the great respect they command reflects how far ahead of their time they really were.
Also check out Youtube under "The Angels" to see their clips. Enjoy!!
Drunk hooligans toss beer bottles hitting singer Doc Neeson directly in back of his skull and bassist Chris Bailey with a broken bottle in the face during "Marseilles". The show ends very abruptly as Doc and Chris are carried off the stage. This event aired live on Australian TV.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=At9YsE2Diws
Still a great body of work to draw from.
I would highly recommend the DVD Live at Narara.
Does it get any better than this?- Marsellies from Live at Narara
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4v-pyDfM2w
RIP Doc
My favourite song is Take a long line!
R.I.P Doc.
Axl Rose and the band covered the song midway through their set on Wednesday night in Las Vegas.
"This one's for Doc. From the Angels to the angels," Axl said towards the end of the song.
Here's the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPbnRCfnWCs#t=74
Legendary Aussie rock groupThe Angels/ Angel City are set to play London at the Garage June 3rd, 2015. Then The Sweden Rock Festival shortly thereafter.
You think AC/DC rock wait until you have your eardrums assaulted by The Angels.
Anyway, the Australian band is superb - in the 80s/90s, I bought so many of their LPs at ruinous import prices, and after much searching too.
It was a shame they split with such animosity, and now Doc Neeson's gone, they'll never be the same again.