City Slang: “All Thrills…” revisited

In the grand scheme of things, the Capitol Cities’ All Thrills isn’t that old and probably not particularly forgotten by those that cared, released, as it was, in 2004. But I don’t care. This is a fantastic album that was only heard by a fraction of the people that should have heard it.

Think back to 2004. The buzz word around town was “garage rock”. Jim Diamond, who produced this record, was and is quite correctly considered a guru who could get the best out of every scuzzy rock band in town, and the White Stripes ruled the world. All eyes were on the D.

All of which makes it more of a mystery that the Capitol Cities didn’t break at least a little bigger than they did. This band’s secret, you see, were the tunes.

In fact, the Capitols weren’t all that scuzzy. They were a punk band, sure. The vocals are snarly in that Lydon-esque way. But the songs are actually pure pop. They are also incredible.

”Can’t Stand It” kicks things off in fine style, but the real winners are the sublime “Detroit City Girls” and the anthemic stomp of “Get Low”.

There’s no filler on here though. Every song’s a winner. So if you didn’t ever get hip to the Capitol Cities, do it now. They deserve your love, even if it’s in retrospect.