In this day and age it's hard to get into all of the music that is out there. If you include the original rock and roll era to today you have 6 decades to choose from and if you have a even bigger and open mind adding the stuff from the 20's to 40's and you may as well say goodbye to your spouse.
Upon my summer bargainhunting tour of Madison, I came across an CD in the dollar bins at Half Priced Books that caught my attention. Some band called The Randy Cliffs and the title was Trixie's Trailer Sales so I figured that this might be worth checking into. After playing this the first time on the way home, I did something that I rarely do, play the whole thing a second time and then a third. Good lord they don't make this kind of music anymore. 34 minutes of barband rock and roll, blessed by a bit of southern rock and The Bottle Rockets and driven by the punk and roll of the New York Dolls, The Stooges and even the Island era Mott The Hoople. So damn sloppy and so damn rocking that if I owned a record label or was influential like Bruce Springsteen I would have bugged the record company to put this out.
There's isn't much on The Randy Cliffs, they were formed in Madison around 2000 and put TTS out the tail end of 2003 and it got good reviews on the local papers but outside of Madison and Wisconsin nothing much was said about them. Starting out with the Southern Culture On The Skids sounding Trucker's Lullaby, it never lets up till the fadeout Rust Belt Town. Juke Joint reminds me of Mott's The Moon Upstairs in terms on how ragged it sounds, as if the wheels are ready to fall off a speeding 18 wheeler. On Fire, gives a wink to AM era Wilco, with the volume turned up to 10 and Whole Way Down, reminds me of The Sand Rubies/Sidewinders from Auntie Ramos Pool Hall. Ending with my favorite song Rust Belt Town which has a bit of Replacements and Uncle Tupelo with Johnny Thunders & Heartbreakers for rock fun.
On my fall trip to Madison I had to seek out and pick up a copy for my friend who is into the Bottle Rockets and I'm sure he won't be disappointed. I guess The Randy Cliffs broke up soon after the making of this album and sometimes do get back together for a reunion but the last time they did that was in 2009.
In annuals of rock after Kurt Cobain offed himself, there are three albums that stand out that not too many know about that qualify as rock and roll greatness. The first is Blue Mountain S/T album, the 2nd Big Back Forty Bested that came out in 1997 and the third is The Randy Cliffs TTS. I'm sure they can be found the dollar section of your local pawnshop if you look hard enough. It would be a dollar well spent in the spirit of rowdy rock n roll.
https://myspace.com/therandycliffs
