Rockers make their home in sweet spot of the ’70s
Bruce Springsteen, Ramones, the Clash are inspiration for Sam Coffey and the Iron Lungs
What’s the deal? “Everyone knows rock attained perfection in 1974,” Homer Simpson, already left behind and completely mystified by the currents of contemporary popular music amidst the rise of grunge and “alternative” two decades ago, famously lamented way back in 1996. “It’s a scientific fact.”
Although they exist very much in the present and conduct themselves musically in a manner that suggests that, collectively, they might put the last great golden age of rock ’n’ roll closer to 1977, Sam Coffey and the Iron Lungs nonetheless feel like a band Homer — and every other ignorant loudmouth from whom you might have endured a lecture of the “Rock is dead”/ “They don’t make ’em like they used to”/ “Boston was it, maaaaan” variety since, oh, 1980 — could get with. Rock, in the hands of Kitchener-bred Coffey and his denim-lovin’ bandmates, sounds remarkably like what one tends to hear in one’s head at the mention of the word “rock.”
On this year’s eponymous Sam Cof- fey and the Iron Lungs LP, released last July through Dine Alone Records in Canada and Burger Records south of the border, the Toronto rowdy-makers consistently, reverently and unapologetically gun for that neglected sweet spot — the one where Springsteen, Meat Loaf and strutting ’70s cock rock rammed into the Ramones and the Clash, and anyone who wasn’t too self-consciously purist or punk to deny him or herself pleasure could find it in the resulting fallout.
Indeed, one can still derive pleasure from either of those directions on the newest album; immediately after Sam Coffey and the Iron Lungs tilts from Thin Lizzy boogie into proper hardcore territory mid-album on “Pressure,” the band coughs up a nine-minute, three-song suite on Side 2 that’s simultaneously offering direct quotes from the Who’s “Baba O’Riley” and Cheap Trick’s “Surrender” by the time “III: PhD” rolls around. These guys have thought hard about how to spare you from thinking about it. Sum up what you do in a few simple sentences. “We’ve been working at it for quite awhile and we’ve always strived to make songs that will last,” Coffey says.
“Classic rock albums have always lasted with me and it shows itself in our songwriting and performing. Lyrics and phrases you remember, guitar riffs that you want to learn and play yourself, songs that you come back to. I want people to wear out our LPs. We bring the heat live, too! Not a lot of bands have as much fun as we do.” What’s a song I need to hear right now? “Talk 2 Her.” What if the late-period Clash had enlisted Rick Springfield to pen them a chorus? Well, it might go a little something like this. Where can I see them play? At the Horseshoe Tavern on Friday, Dec. 29, with Bueller and Possum.