Shane’s Rock Challenge: JUNKYARD – 1989 – Junkyard

Shane | 2 May 2014 | Reply

Shane’s Rock Challenge: JUNKYARD – 1989 – Junkyard
8.5/10

A boozed up bunch of denim-clad low-lives from Austin, Texas and Los Angeles who got together in the City Of Angels, Junkyard carved their own slice of the hair metal pie by deftly wrapping their tunes in a cloak made of sleazy, boozey, Southern-tinged biker rock.

I’ve had the CD of this for years, but picked a mint condition vinyl copy up on record Store Day last month, and I’ve got back into the record in a big way.

Side one opens with the grimey blues rock of Blooze, before a decent Hot Rod and the instantly memorable (and that was almost 25 years ago) Simple Man. Shot full of grit and heavy on the Southern touches, it’s a drawl shy of a classic.

Shot In The Dark (not to be confused with the Ozzy song of a few years before) is another rocker heavy on the groove, and first single Hollywood closes side A in great sleazy style. It may not have reached the audience and had the impact of Guns n’ Roses’ debut, released on the same label (Geffen) a year or two earlier, but it was real, and real good.

Sex, drugs and rock n’ roll, baby – the whole shebang, and you can hear it on the grooves of this record. Life Sentence kicks up dust to start Side 2 at full speed, before they slam the brakes on and put the machine into a slow blues Rose Tattoo slide for Long Way Home.

Can’t Hold Back and Texas keep the sleaze coming, tales of hookers n’ hangovers n’ doing whatever you gotta do to keep afloat, dude. You can just tell these guys were living this nightmarish dream – Junkyard is a posueur-free zone.

The end comes all-too-soon with the closing-time slurred lament of love gone all wrong, tearing the ex up like a hard rock Black Crowes (who actually toured as Junkyard’s support prior to their own debut album). Pure gold.

By Shane Pinnegar