New album, “Killed By Deaf – A Punk Tribute To Motörhead”, out on October 31st!
Heavy metal and punk rock! It’s fair to say that these two noisy tribes now have a great deal in common—often melding together, almost indistinguishable, to produce bastard offspring of their own. But it wasn’t always this way. There was a time when fists were more likely to be thrown than bumped, and beers more likely to be hurled than shared—except when it came to Motörhead. That was the one band we could all agree on. The one band that was truly ours!
But while Motörhead’s impact on metal has long been acknowledged, their influence on punk, particularly the post-Sex Pistols second wave shouldn’t be underestimated. Cause and effect: It’s that simple. And such is the case with hundreds, thousands, of other bands, all made faster, dirtier, louder, better, by Motörhead. None more so than in punk rock.
Lemmy once said – “The punks loved us. The only reason we weren’t in that lot was because we had long hair, so obviously we must be heavy metal. That was the thinking. But a lot of kids heard us without seeing a picture, so they thought we were a punk band.”
Across the fourteen tracks on this album, cunningly titled Killed By Deaf, you’ll hear a loving tribute to Motörhead from some of punk rocks’ biggest and most respected bands. Luminaries like Rancid, Pennywise, Lagwagon, GBH, The Bronx and FEAR all contribute raucous versions of their favourite Motörhead tracks… and also up-and-coming upstarts like Slaughterhouse contribute, because, let’s face it, Motörhead always loved and championed the underdogs.
Lemmy and Motörhead aren’t honoured with their own space in the Punk Rock Museum in Las Vegas for nothing. Long before they covered the Sex Pistols God Save The Queen on We Are Motörhead, and long before writing R.A.M.O.N.E.S, for the 1916 album in tribute to New York’s finest, Motörhead were sharing stages with the likes of The Damned, as they would continue to do many times over the years. Hell, Lemmy even joined The Damned (when they were The Doomed), albeit briefly, and playing some now infamous shows, and playing bass on a couple of studio tracks. It’s only fitting then, that the only non-Motörhead song on this album is from when he teamed up with them again in 2002 for a previously unheard and blistering version of “Neat Neat Neat”.
