The Suicide Machines - Ghosts On Sunset Strip

 
  An oldie today, and a bloody good one it is too.......

  The Suicide Machines don't need much of an introduction as you should be familiar with them but briefly; they got together in Detroit in 1991 (as Jack Kevorkian And The Suicide Machines), they play various shades of punk, ska and hardcore and have released a decent number of classic records.

  Despite splitting suddenly in 2006 they've since played several reunion shows and have recorded a version of You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch for an upcoming Christmas compilation. The line up is currently Jason Navarro (vocals), Ryan Vandeberghe (drums), Rich Tschirhart (bass) and Justin Malek (guitar). Hopefully there will be more new material one day.

  Most people would probably vote 1996's Destruction By Definition as their best album and hard though it is to disagree, I'm a big fan of their last one, War Profiteering Is Killing Us All. By this time, the songs had gotten a little harder, the politics a little more pronounced but the catchy tunes were still all present and correct. A perfect example being Ghosts On Sunset Strip.....


He told all his friends that he's gonna move out to LA,
Burned his bridges, all of them, yeah
He's gotta move out to Cali.
He's living in the sun,
The stars at night under 'em.
Underneath the overpass at Melrose and the 101.

That's just the way it goes,
It's not the city of angels, 
It's the city ghosts,
That's the way it goes.

So now he's living out here in Los Angeles,
As for his addiction, he said he could always handle it.
Hollywood all weekend. On Monday back downtown.
He thought he'd be famous. In his madness he wallows around.

It's Babylon, it's paradise, it's the promise land.
It's Halcyon, it's silicon, it's meth cocaine and heroin.
It's Starbucks and it's all looks, it's all real life TV,
It's rusty scalpels and dirty needles, it's surgery city.

Now he talks to himself alone out on skid row,
Looked around, there was no one else.
Is he laughing with the ghost of Marilyn Monroe?
The Valley suit is shining on a smog alert hazy day,
The last time that I saw him he was down and out,
Down and out in LA.