If It's Too Loud...

Harlis Sweetwater is a Southern California rock n' roll/blues/soul musician. His latest single, "Won't Be Satisfied," is just a pure no nonsense rock n' roll song. It has a little bit of a hyped up blues and Southern rock thing going on, but more in a ZZ Top way than anything else. Or it's like a heavier/more punk version of JD McPherson. "Won't Be Satisfied" also features guitar from David Hidalgo of Los Lobos and John Doe from X on bass. If that doesn't make you want to listen, I don't even know who you are any more. Harlis Sweetwater says of his new song: "I wanted to write a real rocker. A song that had an old school rock n' roll vibe but with a more aggressive kind of punk rock feel to it...something that had a lot of movement. David was recording at the same studio in Santa Ana that I was and of course I've loved everything he has done with Los Lobos, so I thought, why not take a shot and ask him if he would rock a guit...

Photo by Jim Herrington Legendary L.A. punk band X always had a country/rockabilly side, and when John Doe has done solo music he has tended to go full on country/rockabilly. His upcoming solo album is made up of songs that take place in the 1890's, and the first single, "Never Coming Back," is going to be beloved by X fans. It has all the edge of anything Doe's band has done, but just a less in-your-face version of that sound. Maybe it's just Doe's iconic voice, but "Never Coming Back" sounds like a stripped down version of an X song. When one of your favorite punk legends announces a solo album, this is exactly what you want. It still sounds like what you've always loved from them, but doesn't just sound exactly like their band. You can watch the video for "Never Coming Back" below. Fables in a Foreign Land is due out May 20 on Fat Possum, and can be pre-ordered here . For more on John Doe, check out the artist's website .

When Los Angeles punk legends dropped their album ALPHABETLAND seemingly out of nowhere back in April, my expectations were low. A legendary band releasing their first album in twenty seven years, plus it was their first album with the original line up in thirty five years? They've been touring as a nostalgia act for quite a while now, and I've heard plenty of these reunion albums, and usually the best you can hope for is not embarrassing.  But ALPHABETLAND is great. Shockingly great. It stands right up with 1980's Los Angeles , which nobody could have expected. When bands can start touring again, this is going to be the rare occasion where fans don't politely wait through a new song or use the new material to use the bathroom without missing anything good. If you haven't listened to it yet, you truly owe it to yourself to give it a shot. Sure, the songs on ALPHABETLAND  may be a little slower than some of the classics, but these folks are in their mid- to late sixt...

Forgotten Fridays is an occasional feature here at If It’s Too Loud... where we go back and find the lost records of our glory days. We played these on our college radio shows, put them on countless mix tapes, and then forgot they existed. We go back and remind you of their existence, and help decide if they were any good. Oh, the mid 1990's. It was the glory days of the compilation album, where labels would just throw a bunch of bands on a cd, knowing that as long as you liked two or three of the bands, you'd but the entire album since there was no way you'd ever have any other way to get a copy of the exclusive songs. One of their favorite ways to put one of these together was a tribute album. You'd get a bunch of bands that would usually never be associated together, often covering an artist you'd never expect.  One of these tribute albums was Twisted Willie , which is a mostly alternative tribute to Willie Nelson. Including Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings ...