Nixon Now
Solution Revolution

Someone who really understood things once wrote something about how it was better not to judge a book by its cover, and I suppose not even an album. That may well be, but if I hadn't done that, I probably wouldn't have bought the second Nixon Now album and their debut, and I would have missed out on a great band.

So, cheers to covers that are easy to judge: the debut album's cover and even the title, "Solution Revolution," scream out MC5 MC5 MC5 with such force that they make vocal cords and eardrums bleed, and even the second one makes me think so much of Wayne Kramer, but that's obviously my problem.

Then I read someone who seems to review music for a living and confirmed for me that putting those vinyls on the turntable results in a terrifying barrage of sound in pure Detroit 1969 style, like nothing heard since the days of Radio Birdman, New Race, and their singing and playing crew.

The thing I judged wrong, however, is that even though it's still about Detroit 1969, these grooves definitely delve into the Detroit of the Stooges. And the Stooges are a very different thing from the MC5 because, you know, if bro Jesse Crawford had dared to deliver the spiel that kicks off "Kick Out The Jams" on the evening immortalized in "Metallic KO," he would have come out worse for wear. And even if the Stooges had their "so-so" moments – "We Will Fall" at their debut or the B-side of "Funhouse," to be clear – still, the Nixon Now of "Solution Revolution" are the Stooges of "No Fun" and "I Wanna Be Your Dog," those of "Down On The Street," "Loose" and "TV Eye," those of "Raw Power" and "Search & Destroy," in other words, Steve Mackay doesn't set foot in here, clear.

Clear, like the statement of intent "1999," 30 years and nothing has changed, except the boredom that has turned into hate, and the instrumental interludes "Ann Arbor" and "More Ann Arbor," the deliriums of Ron Asheton amidst wah-wah and fuzz, 30 years and nothing has changed, precisely. And I'll add a "what a stroke of luck" and also a profound thanks to people like Nixon Now.

People who make records easy to describe, dirty, raw, and approximate, where the only difference between one track and another is that some last longer and some less, some race really fast like "Make My Day" and "U.C.P.," some only go fast like "Do The Strand" and "I've Been Around" and some even go less fast to the point of seeming like a blues buried under tons of distortion like the almost eponymous "The Solution," "Sick Me" and "Altamont Rose."

People who "… the last album I heard was the Hypnotics…".

People who make records as old as the hills even in 1999, 2005 and as if nothing had happened in 2018.

What a great stroke of luck, I repeat. And again, thanks to people like Nixon Now.