Billy Stark Stone: “Revolution Rerun” – one of those rare tunes!
Billy Stark Stone has been around the block within the music industry. He was the lead singer and founding member of New York’s original teen punk band The Blessed. But apart from punk rock, Billy is well versed in the rock idiom as whole, with particular emphasis on creative songwriting and experimental performances that push the boundaries. On his latest single release, “Revolution Rerun”, Billy roped in a collaboration appearance with former band mate Rico Blythe. Billy has gone down on record as saying “Everything I have done up to now was a dress rehearsal…now it’s ShowTime!”
And ShowTime it is! This is nothing like you expect. “Revolution Rerun”, sounds like an odd, hodge-podge from those notorious punk bands of the late seventies that transcends vulgarity and low brow humor and drifts into the realm of the truly bizarre.
This track deserves 5 stars and a place on any shelf that contains punk, punk-rock, proto-punk, or any other kind of alternative rock. Why? How often have you heard the raw power of this kind music driven by a didgeridoo-synth type sound played on guitar! Pure genius.
Billy Stark Stone breaks more barriers than any of his contemporaries, fusing psychedelic garage rock, proto-punk, and avant-garde performance art with an absolute lack of self-consciousness. To simply call Billy Stark Stone w/ Rico Blythe punk sells them way too short.
The first thing you notice is that didgeridoo-synth type sound; a virtuoso take on the classic trebly guitar-driven axis that once was, but with a difference. It abrades against your ear, it’s a little too different to be conventional, and it has fought for space and beaten out victorious everything else on this recording – bass and drums are reduced to the background, no matter how powerful they tend to be.
The next thing you notice is the voice, a laidback but incessant conversational tone; mixed co-equal with the ‘didgeridoo’ sound, it too abrades against the ear, while on key it sounds like it’s ready to shatter any speckles of silence the music may leave vacant, this is the voice not of a braggart but a musical warrior on point and in total observational mode. It’s 2016, and welcome to the first few bars of the aptly titled record – “Revolution Rerun”.
This is not a normal record. This is an extreme record, a documentary snapshot of an artist standing on the ragged edge of time and scrutinizing the current state of affairs, only to discover that “There’s nothing new beneath the sun. Yeah everything has been said and done.”
“Revolution Rerun” is not simply a great record, or even a classic piece of rock; it’s one of those rare tunes that’s so incredibly unique, fuzzed out and dirty sounding, you’ll find yourself wondering how you will survive without it.
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