Bored!
Chunks

LA RECENSIONE

Geelong, small town near Melbourne, Australia. It is here that, at the end of the eighties, one of the most exhilarating and unjustly forgotten adventures in rock takes off. Especially at the beginning of 2008, where confessing love for certain sounds is firstly out of fashion and almost equivalent to blasphemy, I felt the urge to dust off this double CD, released if I remember correctly in 2000, containing 33 tracks from each of their albums.

This killer r'n'r machine was called Bored! The engine, at least in the early years, was the contrast between the two wild guitarists, Dave Thomas and John Nolan. The former more punk, the latter more hard rock, like putting a bomb in a box of nails. Their debut (and peak) self-titled mini-album came out in 1988. An anthem to the wildest rock, starting from the pre-punk of Stooges and Radio Birdman, passing through the Saints going hand in hand with Motorhead, and demonstrating a feedback worship worthy of the early Sonic Youth. One cannot remain indifferent to such a sonic mix.

The first track "Little Suzie" opens the collection, a landslide of distorted and screeching sound hits me, Stooges-like guitars and Thomas's maniacal voice, others like "Upright Citizen" are faster and punk. Here and there the wild Nolan shreds, tears, and lacerates with his stinging solos, elevating the levels of hypnotic hard rock with walls of distortion and wah wah that almost anticipate stoner. Unfortunately, in 1991, John Nolan and Tim Hemensley (R.I.P.), who joined as a bassist a year before, decide to leave, and they will later form the Powder Monkeys. They had toured with their first album "Negative Waves" (also highly recommended) and recorded "Take It Out on You," always a mix of Stooges, AC/DC, Motorhead, and acid psychedelia from a short circuit. However, without Nolan it's not the same thing, Bored! rediscover their Australian punk roots, "Junk" from 1992 and "Scuzz" from 1993 are their last albums. The memory of the great John’s raucous guitar riffs is now distant, yet these are far from bad records; they just shine with a different light. To think they decided to change direction just when the "success" of bands like Mudhoney could have benefited them. Then, browsing through the collection, you come across covers that make your hair stand on end. "Over The Edge" by the great Wipers is almost better than the original. "Final Solution" by Pere Ubu takes my eardrums beyond the threshold of pain, ten minutes surrounded by an unhealthy atmosphere saturated with feedback. End of the line.

Young long-haired guitarists, ripped jeans, bare feet stomping on pedals and broken glass on stage, abused guitars, electricity, high-voltage rock'n'roll, honor to the Bored!