With the current glut of L.A. glam/biker rock clones in the market, Rumble Street are an easily forgotten band. The band member do display promise, but their creative direction won't do much to move them into the spotlight. . .or my cassette deck.
Their five-song demo begins with "Open Road," a mid-tempo, basic progression grunge ballad. I felt like I was walking in molasses waiting for this open road to lead somewhere. It never did.
The next cut is "Go All The Way," (Careful, the titles are out of order on the J-cover!), which opens with a cool tom tom pattern then breaks into something too L.A. Guns-ish. The convincing erotic moans did get under my skin, though.
"Rumble Street," the third track, is a grinding city sleaze tune. This one is furious urban noise that made me see steam rising off the asphalt and pushers on the corner.
Next up, "Heat Of The City" has all the basic components of a good hard rock song, but wasn't nearly as fresh or convincing as "Rumble Street."
Last, but not least, "Need Your Love" as an interesting combination of Aerosmith's "Walk This Way" and the Gunners' "My Michelle." This cut best displays vocalist Mark Savage's ability to hit those banshee wails, and is, ironically, about the most original piece on the demo.
All told, this demo does have its merits. The songs have a street feel and the recording is fairly tight. But the main problem here is that Rumble Street's sound is too common, and in the city of a thousand bands, you need a lot more than a so-so demo to keep from getting buried under the pile.