THE MARTINETS - Love ! Hate !

THE MARTINETS Love ! Hate ! cd 2000 Scooch Pooch Rcds 320 kbps

I don't follow / Treasures / Die everyday / Imperfect goddess / Monopoly / Air conditioner / Falling / A fan's heaven / A moment of silence, please / I can't pretend / Better man than I / Hallowed ground / Next time.

Recorded by B. Goggin, mixed & mastered by J. M. Smith.

The Martinets : Eamonn Bowles : vocals, guitar / Daniel Rey : guitar, vocals / Roger Murdock : drums, vocals / Dave Rick : bass.

The Martinets formed in New York in the mid-'90s, with a lineup consisting of Eamonn Bowles (guitar, vocals), guitarist Dave Rick (formerly with Yo La Tengo), Roger Murdock (drums, vocals), and the renowned Ramones producer Daniel Rey (guitar). Offering furious themes of punk rock, essentially inspired by bands like the New York Dolls and the Heartbreakers, they led crews of the punk movement during the late '70s. "Love!Hate!", the group's debut album, hit record stores in February of 2000, enjoying reasonable results and attaining significant reviews from the media. Two years later, the New York squad recorded what turned out to be their second major recording, "New stories for men", again through the Scooch Pooch record label.

If the Replacements had managed to stay together into the new millennium, reducing their alcohol intake but creating a more mature and stable version of the wild-eyed intensity of "Let It Be" and "Tim", they would undoubtedly eventually have recorded an album like the Martinets' debut. "Love! Hate!" sounds surprisingly like the Mats, with a hint of their Minneapolis homeboys Soul Asylum and the Hang Ups, as well, but an older and wiser version. (All of the members of the band, particularly guitarist Daniel Rey and bassist Dave Rick, have lengthy resumés on the New York indie scene going back well into the '80s.) As a result, the album lacks the immediacy that a younger, hungrier band might give it, but, to their favor, the Martinets invest the songs with enough cool sonic touches -- like the Revolver-style chiming guitars on "Imperfect Goddess" -- to draw in the listener... So "Love! Hate!" isn't an all-time classic, but it's entertaining enough to be a promising debut. Allmusic

Note that The Martinets will have their triumphant third cd, "Comeback Tour", out soon from Nicotine Records (Walter Lure, The Mochines, The Lime Spiders,The Lustkillers ...).