Rocket From The Tombs
The Day The Earth Met… CD - Smog Veil

Though only together for a short period in the mid-Seventies and having never recorded a studio album, Rocket From The Tombs is often ranked alongside the Stooges, MC5 and Patti Smith in terms of raw punk rock abandon. In the past twenty-six years the band's signature hit, "Sonic Reducer," has been covered by bands as disparate as Dead Boys and even Pearl Jam, a testament to the validity of their music. Collected on Smog Veil's excellent Rocket From The Tombs Live From Punk Ground Zero, Cleveland 1975 is a compilation of three performances representing the band at its most reckless. Though long bootlegged, the performances contained here - February 18, 1975 at The Rftt Rehearsal Loft, July 24, 1975 at the Piccadilly Inn, and May 5, 1975 at the Agora - have never been released in their entirety. Even previously heard recordings are not as clear as the material presented here. Songs included are covers of the Stooges' "Raw Power" and "Search & Destroy" along with a rockin' version of "Sonic Reducer" which was later covered by ex-Tombs in the band Dead Boys. Though the album reviewed was on compact disc, Smog Veil (run by ex-Tombs J. Regular, aka John Morton) has pressed a deluxe 140 gram red wax vinyl edition that is limited to seven-hundred copies that will most likely be sold out by the time this review sees print. For historical clarification, the San Diego-based alternarockers Rocket From The Crypt are related in name-only, though ex-Rocket From The Tombs members have gone on to play in the Dead Boys (fronted by Stiv Bators) and Pere Ubu. (Glen Steven Colen)
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