By JAY ROBERTS

The Cassette Chronicles is a continuing series of mini reviews and reflections on albums from the 1980’s and 1990’s. The aim of this series is to highlight both known and underappreciated albums from rock, pop and metal genres from this time period through the cassette editions of their releases. Some of the albums I have known about and loved for years, while others are new to me and were music I’ve always wanted to hear. There will be some review analysis and my own personal stories about my connection with various albums. These opinions are strictly my own and do not reflect the views of anyone else at Limelight Magazine.

JUNKYARD – JUNKYARD (1989)

With a sound that has been described as mixing in Southern rock, boogie woogie and AC/DC, the band Junkyard drew broad comparisons to fellow Geffen Records label mates Guns N’ Roses when their self-titled debut album was released. You’d have thought that would’ve been enough to draw me in to check out the band but in all the years since the band first hit the scene, I don’t think I’ve ever really heard anything from Junkyard.

It’s a little embarrassing to say the least. That embarrassment is slightly compounded a bit more when you consider that I have a Facebook friend who is majorly into the band. I remember a few years back she even asked if I wanted to see an area show they were playing to do a concert review.

The band’s first two albums have been sitting in The Big Box of Cassettes for a good long while now. So I thought what better time than now to FINALLY give a good listen to Junkyard and give my long after the fact thoughts?

The first side of the album opens with the song “Blooze” and while singer David Roach is “drinking his blooze away”, this song kicked off a rather interesting bit of education for me as it relates to the band.

By that I mean, this was incredible! The first side of the Junkyard album is filled with some fantastic music…to say the least. With “Blooze”, you can feel how the band captures lightning in a bottle as the song’s pacing is just relentlessly in your face. It’s a killer sounding track and the vocal take has a gritty tone to it that sharpens the track’s edge just a little bit more to my ears.

The band follows that up with another double-barreled shot of fiery rock and roll with “Hot Rod”. What I liked a lot with this particular track was hot it employed a swinging style in the music’s melody and delivery. It gave more of a free-wheeling feel to the song and I found I enjoyed it a lot.

Now, if you want to find a song that seems to lean a bit on the “Southern rock” template a bit heavier than other tunes on the album, the song “Simple Man” (which is not a cover track of that big hit song of the same title). The track is much slower than the first two songs, but still maintains a rather lively quick stepping feel overall.

You know how the band has the AC/DC comparison attached to it? It’s a great thing if you can pull it off and still manage to have a sound wholly your own at the same time. But on the song “Shot In The Dark”, I thought the track was something you could imagine the band Kix, not AC/DC or Guns N’ Roses, having done. And believe me, I mean that in the most complimentary fashion. There’s a great little hook in the song that did in fact “hook me in” to the entire song. And man, this was a really blazing track.

Of course, my Junkyard education gave me a rather embarrassing lesson when the last song of Side One kicked in. I said I didn’t think I’d ever heard anything from the band before now. Wow was I wrong!

Of course I’m talking about the song “Hollywood”. And not only have I heard the song a lot over the last 30 plus years, but I actually love it a lot. But somehow, I can’t remember actually knowing that it was Junkyard that did the song. I don’t know, maybe I’m losing my mind or something. But as the song played this time around, I was rather stunned to realize Junkyard was the one that did the song. I’d really love to know how I could forget or not know they did such a great song. But here’s a question for everyone, is it their best known song?

As for the second side of the album, the wildly energetic rock and roll continues apace right from the start. The song “Life Sentence” features some ripping guitar work to open the song that grows from that intro to a more explosive full-on rocker throughout the rest of the track.

The guitar playing from Chris Gates and Brian Baker is pretty damn good throughout the album but I thought the song “Can’t Hold Back” was a spotlight track for their work. It ended up being one of my personal favorite songs on the album. You can feel the band kind of revving up in the intro before their full musical attack kicks in but once it does, man what a killer song.

That same kind of guitar-centric opening before the full sonic picture starts can be said about the song “Texas” as well. There’s a bit of noodling around for the song’s intro but once things get rolling, as David Roach proclaims his love for “that Texas ass!”, it’s just an unstoppable energetic number that I loved.

What struck me weird for the album is the song “Long Way Home”. It’s got more of a methodical bluesy approach to the track and usually it’s something I heartily enjoy. But for some reason, while the song it decent, I would hesitate to say I really loved it. I can’t quite put my finger on why I felt that way but that’s just how it seemed to come across to me.

The album closes out with the song “Hands Off” and the band seemed to want to slow things down a bit as the album concludes. But slowing down is kind of a relative term here. Yes, it wasn’t as over-the-top in terms of pacing like “Blooze” or “Hot Rod” but it still has its moments where power and intensity break through the more keenly focused but clearly slower tempo portions of the song. It does bring the album to a immensely satisfying conclusion however.

And that’s where I was left after listening to the album for the first time. Yes, I completely missed the boat on this band back in the day. Which is embarrassing beyond measure considering 1989 was probably where I was in my prime as an 80’s metal fan. But 34 years after the fact, I’ve discovered just how freaking good the Junkyard album is and now I’m really looking forward to checking out what else they have to offer. Because again, this album is one hell of a fantastic listening experience!

NOTES OF INTEREST: The debut album featured guest appearances from Al Kooper on the tracks “Hands Off” (he played piano) and “Simple Man” (he played both piano and Hammond organ). Guitarist Earl Slick (who played with David Bowie among his list of credits) played slide guitar on “Simple Man” and “Long Way Home”.

Junkyard released two studio albums before being dropped from their label back in 1992. They had a third album recorded but it remained unreleased until 1998 when the band self-released the material under the names Joker and XXX.

The band has two other studio albums to their credit as well. High Water came out in 2017 while the album Old Habits Die Hard (originally recorded in 1992 apparently) came out in 2019. They also have a live album, an EP and a compilation of previously unreleased material available.

Singer David Roach, bassist Todd Muscat, drummer Patrick Muzingo and guitarist Tim Mosher have been in the band’s reformed lineup since 2000. Guitarist Jimmy James has been with the band since 2017.