The Iron City Houserockers

I recall learning of these dudes from reviews of their first couple of abums in Creem magazine.....sounded like something I'd like and after hunting down the albums, sure enough did like em, quite a bit in fact. That is why it is so surprising, to me at least, that they are so forgotten today, and their music is so difficult to find.....I had the first two albums on vinyl and ripped them to CD years ago, but "Blood On the Bricks" (their third) proved pretty difficult to find......until I was poking around on Pirate Bay last night and there it was, along with their other two abums. A GREAT find.

They owed their sound to a sort of Springsteen/Stones/J Geils hybrid, bluesy, rough,working-class, bar-band sound and occasionally showing the fire of punk bands ala the Boomtown Rats.....the first album, "Love's So Tough" for my money is not quite as good as the second, released in 1979 (my senior year) it DID serve as some background music for my friends and my own scene......"Dance With Me" and "Heroes Are Hard to Find" are among the more memorable tracks, harmonica-driven, beer drinking music for certain.

In 1980, they released what I think is their best effort, the somewhat stunning "Have a Good Time (But Get Out Alive)".......showing off the roots of the first effort and building on them, the title track and the pairing of "Old Man's Bar"/"Junior's Bar" have a real kick to them, almost like "American Pub Rock" (I just made that one up myself!).....a really GOOD album, and a forgotten one for whatever reason.....I prefer to listen to it, for example, over contemporary releases other "All American Working Class" rockers (Seger, Petty, Springsteen, and saying NOTHING disfavorable about any of them).

When "Blood on the Bricks" came out, I was never able to find a copy of it, finally locating one for $1.00 at a record-collectors convention.....the copy I bought was not worth the dollar, skips (remember THOSE?) all through it.....thought it was decent, what I COULD hear of it, but probably never listened to it more than once, and the Iron City Houserockers faded from my memory, just as they did from nearly everyone elses'....I see from Wikipedia that they issued a FOURTH album, "Crack Under Pressure", in 1983, to be honest I've never heard of it until this minute and it wasn't in the "Bay" torrent, and apparently they even had some releases subsequent to THAT under the shortened name "Houserockers".....who knew? Anyway for me these guys will always be about those first two LP's that Creem raved about, if you've never heard them, or heard OF THEM, please try them out......good stuff.

LOVE'S SO TOUGH-01 I Can't Take It/02 Hideaway/03 Turn It Up/04 Dance With Me/05 Love So Tough/06 Veronica/07 Heroes Are Hard To Find/08 Stay With Me Tonight/09 I'm Lucky

HAVE A GOOD TIME BUT GET OUT ALIVE-01 Have a Good Time (But Get Out Alive)/02 Don't Let Them Push You Around/03 Pumping Iron/04 Hypnotized/05 Price of Love/06 Angela/07 We're Not Dead Yet/08 Blondie/09 Old Man's Bar/10 Junior's Bar/11 Runnin' Scared/12 Rock Ola

BLOOD ON THE BRICKS-01 Friday Night/02 Saints and Sinners/03 This Time the Night Won't Save Us/04 Be My Friend/05 No Easy Way Out/06 No More Loneliness/07 Watch Out/08 Blood On the Bricks/09 A Fool's Advice