REVIEW | JOHNNY AND THE ROTTEN - HERE IS JOHNNY II - ALBUM

Is there another way to describe completely deranged music that you just want to escalate while listening to? Yes, I only need four words for this, Johnny And The Rotten. And these three freaks are exactly what we're talking about today.

For me, the psychedelic garage punk trio from Linz is an integral part of the local music scene, because every concert that I have attended by them was an absolute pleasure. When this band is on stage they just tear everything down like a tsunami and in my opinion have been excelling at playing live since they released their debut album Down The Rabbit Hole in 2019. But today it's about the second album Here Is Johnny II and like the previous one, listening to this live makes you feel like you're standing in the front row of a club and the band playing in a rage, until they pull you into a trance state. When you listen to the eight songs, you get yourself into a state where you can still hear the instrumental and vocals but additionally you've tripped into the world of Johnny And The Rotten, whether you want to or not. Unfortunately I had to fight that mental kidnapping really hard to be able to write a review that would put this album into words. That wasn't easy for me, because whenever I tried to concentrate on how to put into words what I was hearing, I fell back into this said trance state after a short time.

So I don't even want to try to search for words to describe my impressions about this album. Instead I will try to explain what this album triggered in me. The fact is that, whether I want to or not, I usually always automatically analyze songs and try to understand what's happening on the instruments or what the song is about. That's probably also the musician's curse, that you often can't hear music the way you should. But Johnny And The Rotten took me back to the time when I was just a simple listener, without the compulsion to analyze everything immediately. It's so refreshing and soothing for me to be able to enjoy music in this way again. If you know it yourself or can empathize, you might understand why I think saying something like that is one of the greatest compliments a musician can give a band. That's why I don't want to go any further into how damn well the guys master their instruments or what the songs are about or what else should be in a solid review. I'll leave that up to you this time, because I'm certainly not spoiling this listening experience by starting to analyze everything. I just want to encourage you to buy their records, tapes and merch, attend their shows whenever you can and support them with your money and love because if anyone deserves it it's Johnny And The Rotten!

What you should definitely know is that Here Is Johnny II was released via Stonefree Records, one of the hottest labels in Austria. So if you're looking for some more banging bands check out the Stonefree Records website and have a listen. Apart from that you can buy records and merchandise directly there.

Before I forget, of course, there are the nails and because I didn't really go into detail this time and actually just pushed my enthusiasm for the album and the band onto you, I give them six out of five nails. Hopefully that makes it clear, without having to write twenty more pages, how amazing I find this album and how difficult it was for me to put Here Is Johnny II into words.