Tag: The Beatles

Noises In My Head: SAIGON KICK – “My Life”

By Carl Begai

Saigon Kick – “My Life”

Album: s/t

I discovered Saigon Kick quite by accident, through a rock magazine (I forget which one it was) that came with a split 45 featuring “What Do You Do” on Side A; no idea who was on Side B. As a punk fan I was immediately hooked, and I picked up the album the next day as it had just been released. Fact is I love this album to death and I could write a 5-page essay on everything that’s right about it; this one and follow-up The Lizard are two of my favourite records of all time. From the Middle Eastern vibe of opener “New World” to The Cult-isms of “Love Of God” and ‘”ICU” to the Brit-punk vibe running all the way through…. man, it never gets boring. But “My Life”… that song takes the cake and leaves you wondering what the hell just happened.

Ten songs into what is a wonderfully obnoxious listen comes a song I – and nobody else – could have anticipated going in. From the get-go it sounds like The Beatles have joined the party as Saigom Kick turn out music suitable for a Sesame Street soundtrack. It’s entirely too happy by half, but the groove, the vocals, the over-the-top chorus… somehow it all makes sense for a band that clearly had no interest in catering to the hair band scene they were (unfortunately) lumped in with. But that isn’t even the best part. Nope. It is the iconic, mindblowing KAZOO SOLO in the middle of it all that binds everything together, making you realize (a) only a special kind of creative madness could come up with this, and (b) there is no fucking way you cannot like this song.

The album is artistic chemistry at its best. “My Life” is one of the most original songs I’ve ever heard. Love it.

SAIGON KICK – Matt Kramer: Lizards And Lore

By Carl Begai

For the uninitiated, Saigon Kick was a band that could have and should have made it big. By no means did they take the world by storm with the release of their self-titled debut in 1991, but anyone with an open mind fortunate to stumble across it was instantly hooked. A rabid cross between The Sex Pistols and The Beatles, with occasional stomps through the Orient, a truckload of attitude and tongue planted firmly in cheek as required, Saigon Kick sounded like no other artist on the scene. They quickly became a cult favourite. It was their second album – The Lizard, issued in 1992 – that put the band on the map, but for all the wrong reasons if you talk to vocalist Matt Kramer. When he quit in 1993 while recording their third album, Water, it was essentially the beginning of the end. The band went on to record three more studio albums with guitarist/co-founder Jason Bieler up front, but they were never able to recapture the magic of Saigon Kick’s early years.

Kramer has gone on record as saying that he and Bieler don’t see eye-to-eye on certain issues, making a reunion nearly impossible. An attempt was made in 1997, but things crashed and burned after only two shows. A follow-up tour in 2000 – without Bieler – held promise for some kind of future, but nothing materialized. Then, in 2009, word came down the band would get back together at the Rock Gone Wild Festival in Algona, Iowa. And once again, things fizzled out before they got off the ground.

“We were supposed to do the gig, but it went belly up,” Kramer explains. “The organizers went bankrupt before the show went down. It would have been a great show. We had Tony Sales from Tin Machine to play bass, we were looking at a couple different cats for guitar, so it would have been a really cool line-up. Sadly, it didn’t go through, but on that note maybe I can give you some interesting stuff that might have happened on the Saigon Kick road (laughs).” Continue reading SAIGON KICK – Matt Kramer: Lizards And Lore