New Music of the Day: CIX – Thick Skin – False Heads.

They say that if mankind ever destroys itself with nuclear weapons and takes everything with it, the only thing that will survive will be the cockroach. I think two things will actually be heard in that dead, dystopian aftermath, the scurrying of cockroaches and rock and roll. After all it has survived, evolved and thrived from its country rock roots, through the pomp and punk backlash of seventies, Paul Morley articles, 90’s reinventions, continual social and media backlashes and current commercial drives, that’s certainly a lot more than the cockroach has had to endure and it can certainly shake off a few bombs.

And False Heads perfectly titled Thick Skin is a great example, the perfect musical banner to plant in the ground as a rallying point. Having been courted by Gary Powell’s 25 Hour Convenience Store label and hailed as the future of the genre by punk and rock cornerstones Danny Fields and Iggy Pop himself, it is obvious that they are doing something right. But it comes down to what you think rock music is all about. For despite all of those costume changes and fashion trends that have defined the surface of the genre, it is that snotty, confrontational, uncompromising, sleazy, dangerous and exciting heart which beats at its core which has always been the true definition of rock and roll and False Heads have that in spades.

Despite what sensational hacks fighting for their jobs at papers such as NME might say (is that even a thing anymore?) guitar music isn’t dead, it just popped down to the all night garage for some fags, vodka and munchies and now driven on by nicotine rushes, booze based bravado and hopped up on chocolate and e-numbers it is coming to reclaim its territory. Best you don’t stand in its way.