REVIEWS

updated 12/4/07

we're not going to print it all here, 'cause it's really long, but, the damn best thing you can read about us right now was written by Julian Cope in November for his site Head Heritage.

From the Big Takeover #59 by Jack Rabid "It’s been three years since this Cleveland trio released its debut, Screwed, and the curiously named New Lou Reeds haven’t messed with the formula. The “first” Lou Reed won’t be jammin’ with them anytime soon, but David Thomas of Pere Ubu and Rocket from the Tombs wouldn’t be out of place (singer Stephe DK shouts out in a high-pitched, bluesy whine similar to Thomas’s) if he went down to the show and brought his current RFTT bandmate Richard Lloyd with him. Bassist Edward Angel Sotelo may have spent time playing with Cobra Verde and their GBV-associated Doug Gillard, but it’s the jagged, pointed, wandering guitars of DK and a general Detroit-ish mayhem that defines this group. The chaos works; they’ll get Top Billin’ someday."

Skyscraper #23: “The New Lou Reeds present their disappointing sophomore slump album.” Having only heard their debut in passing, it’s hard to qualify the truth in that statement, but it’s probably safe to assume that Top Billin’ is a logical extension of that album. The New Lou Reeds exist in New York City and Cleveland, but play music that betrays their Midwestern existence. Top Billin’ is chock full of quasi-bluesy Americana, the likes of which a Clevelander would be more than likely to find at the Beachland Ballroom on any given night, even when The New Lou Reeds aren’t playing there. Lead singer Stephe DK’s lyrics are equally elementary (see: the “whack”/”crack” rhyme in “Naw, Syke”) and somehow prescient (see: the social commentary on the state of America in “You Don’t Have to Die”). Adam Constantine’s guest organ turns in “I Am a Monster” and “Poverty Stinks” give the album a garage-soul feel- one that’s only enhanced by DK’s “poor-man’s Chris Cornell” vocal range. Top Billin’ is an album that will surely be appreciated by anyone who prefers coming home at night smelling of cigarettes and alcohol.

Cleveland Scene: "Every saloon from Lorain to Euclid should be cranking Top Billin'. With tunes full of empty pockets, disenchantment, and s-e-x, the New Lou Reeds' brand of steel-plant blues rock makes 'em the drinking man's Black Keys. On "Lookin' for a Boogaloo," singer and guitarist Stephe DK leads a walk through his seedy world, while "Poverty Stinks" serves as the perfect anthem for every guy who's stumbled into the bar at 6 a.m." (Cleveland Scene)

From the Mountain Express, Asheville, NC:"The frenetic, driving rhythms and wistfully humorous lyrics of Top Billin' disprove the New Lou Reeds self-description of it as a 'disappointing sophomore slump.' Like the raised-by-wolves love children of Richard Hell and Southern Culture on the Skids, they shake it like their namesake never could."

from PaperThinWalls.com: "The New Lou Reeds’ proficient, non-flashy blues is neither new nor reminiscent of the Velvet Underground, but it’s gonna stick anyhow. Singer/guitarist Stephe DK is a workhorse who leads the trio with a more self-effacing understanding of Electric Sweat than the Mooney Suzuki. Instead of being guys who claim they can get the jam going, 'Lookin’ For A Boogaloo' is a smart-ass commentary on searching far and wide for a place downtown to get a funk dance on. Howling more like John Fogerty than Jon Spencer, DK rouses his troops with 'If you got nothing, you’ve got nothing to lose. It's like ZZ and Top, it’s Huey Lewis And The News. Come on, it’s time to rock. We're out lookin’ for a boogaloo.' Bassist Ed Sotelo and drummer Jeff Ottenbacher have their share of decent fills, but the New Lou Reeds function best as Cleveland’s answer to the words-but-not-tune-driven Hold Steady. DK's mouthy, comical stories rule and rescue Top Billin’, a collection of simple garage rabble-rousers that drag on just a little bit too long, from the bar-band heap."

From CoolCleveland.com: "In 1988, Brooklyn, New York rappers Audio Two dropped the anthem "Top Billin,’" with lyrics about Gizmo (unconfirmed whether it’s a friend or the infamous Gremlin) and bodyguards galore. Eighteen years later, the genre is completely different and the caws are about mashed potatoes, and poverty as Top Billin’ returns remolded with untarnished blues riffs and Stephe DK on vocals and guitar. The New Lou Reeds have no ties to the forgotten rappers…it’s just fun to reminisce as their sophomore album (only 529.3 megabytes) is released to the public. Top Billin’ is a jaunt, sorta like riding your Huffy from Ohio City to Collinwood. Quick and easy to digest like Ma’s stew, it’s easily one of the best albums to come out of Cleveland this year. Kicking off the pedal fest is "Lookin’ for a Boogaloo," an infectious five-minute groove about the elusive Boogaloo, who may very well be Denise Dufala. Lost in Lake Erie, perhaps, are the fuzzy sounds of 2003’s debut Screwed as the following track, "Michael Jones," features extended smooth axe playing from Stephe DK, and Edward Sotelo on bass. The Count Five would be proud as the trend continues on with "Captain America," and "Small Town Blues." While the band sounds crisper, the lyrics reach a climax with the Black Key-ish "Poverty Stinks." Maybe inspired by Cleveland’s own struggles, the bluesy song points a finger to the hellish conditions and mental insecurities that are associated with having no money: Your whole world is just three blocks wide/You’re the bottom feeders, never see the sunlight/And you're down on the ground and you got no way out/So take your medicine and drink till you drown." Ending the journey, the band channels The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan and The Flying Burrito Brothers (in the Gram Parsons years), as fellow hometown boys the Dreadful Yawns join them for the folk country hybrid "Beautiful Women #2." Stephe DK has never sounded so sincere and it’s a fitting capper to what the band dubs the ‘sophomore slump’ album. In this case, leave it to the professional athletes from Cleveland to succumb to the slump--The New Lou Reeds can look forward to the junior jinx. "

From The Cleveland Scene:
"Comparisons to Pere Ubu dog the New Lou Reeds, but they're meant as compliments, and they're not unwarranted. David Thomas himself probably wouldn't mind being mentioned in the same breath as this postmodern blues trio. The many impatient ears that have found Ubu unlistenable should still give the band a chance, as should Black Keys fans. Breezing through heartland Americana, the freeform workouts ru" long, but they don't sprawl too badly, even in seven-minute shuffles like "Beautiful Women #2." Top Billin' is beautiful album #2.

From The Toronto Star:
"Though it sounds on first listen like some half-forgotten prototypical '60s punk single from one of Lenny Kaye's Nuggets compilations, it is on second listen way too knowing to sit still for that tag to be applied. Nonetheless, the yelping vocals and 2 1/2-chord accompaniment sound so raw, this barely qualifies as garage rock. More like skid-to-a-halt-and-leave-the-car-on-the-lawn rock." (listen to their podcast here!)

from ZeroMag.com:
"Top Billin’ is at least not a bore. The New Lou Reeds play electrified southern rock ‘n’ roll like the last great bar band you saw..." (read more, and send this review to a friend by clicking here)

from The Big Takeover:
"Or more likely the New (early) Pere Ubus, a thought reinforced by their being from Cleveland, their recording a song called 'Peter Laughner' (an original Ubu member), and most of all by Stephe DK's vocals, which bubble and squeak and squawk in a highly similar manner as David Thomas's - not like Lou Reed's at all. (Even if 'Hometown Hero' is very Velvet Underground.) But the nice thing about Ubu is that they were so hard to copy, and The New Lou Reeds don't try, either. The jagged but fulsome rock action here, like on the gnashing 'Stranded in Ashland', instead discovers a previously unknown link between Captain Beefheart, Television, and Neil Young. The music is rhythmic, kooky, a little twisted, and unpredictable. They even try a twisted rock take on ska on 'The Foreigner' that does to the Skatalites what the Clash did to Junior Murvin, as well as a waltz-blues in 'Brighton Beach' that compares well to Iggy & the Stooges' 'I Need Somebody.' Screwed is generally excellent. And lyrically, they convey the absurdity of bad urban decay that was this crumbling, industrial 'mistake on the lake' better than anyone since Thomas did. I say 'was' because I haven't been there in 11 years. From this record's opinion, I might well say 'still is.'"

from the legendary Julian Cope's website:
"I've also been vibrating off the in-bred sounds of SCREWED by The New Lou Reeds, who come from Cleveland and don't sound like that old Velvets tosser. Indeed, they're coming on more like an over-caffeine'd Warren Zevon meets that classic Elevators period when even a quizzical Roger Kynard Erikson can't quite reach the Gurdjieffian complexities of Tommy Hall's lyrics. Delightful babies, truly unctuous self-obsession at its highest level ('Without warning a wizard walks by!'). "Teenage Metalhead" has a polio strut to die for (nay, live for) and they even finish the record with a song called 'Peter Laughner'!"

Chuck Eddy wrote about us in the Village Voice:
"They seem to get their 'Sister Ray' blues drones going pretty good, and the rants and grimy riffs on top may well beat Railroad Jerk if not the Gibson Brothers."

From Antoine Tedesco, Scene and Heard:
The second the first song starts to play you understand why this band makes any reference whatsoever to Lou Reed – they sound like vintage VU and early Lou Reed. But there’s more to this band than a pleasant reminder of old, garage, punk-inspired music, these guys rock pretty groovy.The bass lines pop while the trashy drums permeate each song. The guitar is fuzzy, a bit messy but always on the money. This is the kind of release that either grabs you instantly or quickly turns you off. Stephe DK’s howling vocals can grate on the nerves, but give him a chance it’s really cool stuff. You actually miss his yelping if you don’t hear it for a few songs – the first time you hear it on Track 2, ‘Stranded in Ashland’, you’re taken aback. But, it belts nicely with the music so you wait for the next time he decides it’s appropriate. Like their namesake, the art-rock vibe is all over the place on Screwed, an album with a front cover that will make you laugh a bit uncomfortably. The victim in this photo is definitely screwed! Track 4, ‘Hate Fest’, is a one-guitar show with country, folk vocals that bring you into the lyrics while most of the songs get you jumpin’, boppin’, and even some rockin’ out. Although it seems to be all the rage, really good old-fashioned garage rock is hard to come by these days. The New Lou Reeds, assuming they stick to the spirit of the master of distortedly storytelling Lou Reed, they will be around impressing music fans for as long as they feel like playing together.

From Lost At Sea:
You know that guy in your classes who was too smart for his own good? He was usually my best friend every year; his uncompromising knowledge and bitter wisecracks keeping me afloat. The New Lou Reeds encompass every bit of this smart[ass] sentiment, awash in smarmy, pleasure-seeking goodness. Don’t let their name fool you, they don’t often sound like Lou Reed, though respect for him shines throughout. Instead, they channel the obscurity and experimental guitars of Primus through a filter of low-swaggering garage rock. One can sense they desperately want to live in the time of the Velvets, becoming a part of their legendary crowd. Their druggy, inventive art-rock would likely earn them some credibility even then, but nowadays they could get mistakenly shoved into a more simplistic box. Like many in the NYC scene, these Cleveland boys have an affinity for the Stones, but there’s a lot more to be said for Screwed."Teenage Metalhead" is instantly appealing due to its perplexing pacing and raw-throated bounce. "Hometown Hero" lifts from the jumpy inspiration of Chuck Berry to elicit beads of sweat and soul. Lumbering and bluesy, "(I Felt Like) Woody Allen" feels more modern than the rest of the album, with its alert guitars and fluctuating volume. While the New Lou Reeds will almost definitely get compared to the White Stripes and the Starvations along the way, it should gratify them to know they are in such beloved company. Even the introduction of ska on "Foreigner" doesn’t seem out of place – the band can truly pull off a lot in the middle of their sleazy commentary. Their only true pitfall comes on the closing "Peter Laughner," which, as the lengthiest track, attempts to be their epic but ultimately fails. Its watery eulogizing feels silly – the constant comparison to the Velvets that remains in the back of your head laments that this is no "Heroin," no "Sister Ray". Still, one has to applaud their grandiosity and their ability to recall the winning, seedy production values of the times. Oozing with delight and depravity, Screwed feels so bad for you, but that’s what makes it so appealing. In a countercultural sort of way, I hope there’s more where this came from.

From Chuck Molgat, Exclaim Canada:
For the record, the New Lou Reeds sound nothing like Lou Reed ever did, unless you count one of these dozen tracks (“Hometown Hero”) that starts off sounding a little like something the Velvets might have jammed on. Rather, this Cleveland-based trio specialise in fuzzed-out, lo-fi blues rock with first-take, devil-may-care vocals and plenty of “art-cohol” flourishes. There is some versatility at work here, though, like the edgy, ska’d-up track “The Foreigner,” a brief affront to hip-hop simply called “Interlude” and the acoustic guitar-powered ballad “Peter Laughner,” which respectfully tells the story of one of Cleveland’s legendary proto-punk pioneers. Even despite that particular content, Pere Ubu comparisons are basically inevitable, given the band’s experimental penchant and vocalist Stephen DK’s not-quite-falsetto microphone attack, which comes off sounding like a stylistic combination of Ubu front-man David Thomas and Stooges-era Iggy.