The Real Kids, Shake…Outta Control

I’ve been a big Real Kids fan since 1976, when I heard them on the Live at the Rat album (aka The Record That Changed My Life). But I still feel I came late to the party and haven’t bolstered my devotion nearly enough. I’ve heard all their records, including the alternate-takes albums and the nearly-Real Kids bands like the Taxi Boys or The Lowdowns, and the John Felice solo stuff and some bootlegs and such. But I’ve barely ever seen the band live.

My lack of commitment, despite my deep love of their songs, was driven home to me when I found out The Real Kids had regrouped and released a new album six months ago and I hadn’t even known about it. It took me a review in the new issue of Ugly Things to make me wise, and minutes later I’d downloaded Shake…Outta Control in all its glory.

Maybe I should ease up on myself. I’d given up looking for new Real Kids product long ago. John Felice had gone a few different directions and it didn’t seem like the Real Kids were necessarily one of them, outside of a reunion show or two.

The new line-up has founding Real Kid Felice plus longtime compatriot Billy Cole, who was The Taxi Boys’ bassist and became The Real Kids’ guitarist in the early ‘80s. (The original bassist, “Alpo” Paulino, died in 2006. Shake…Outta Control certainly sounds like a good old Real Kids album, and it actually sounds a lot better, production-wise, than a lot of Felice’s output in the ‘80s and ‘90s. This is a record where the sound is not connected to a trendy commercial style. It’s geared to The Real Kids, made to sound like the band sounded at their best.

Felice may not have slowed down much, but he’s slowed some of The Real Kids songs down, with mixed results. Of the self-covers on Shake…Outta Control, “Who Needs You” (the rousing, riffing Live at the Rat classic track that I’ve personally heard several thousand times over the years) is presented at about the same tempo as the already balladic “Common at Noon,” which in turn is reconstructed as a Country & Western song. “No Fun No More” is given a Rolling Stones-esque refinement. As for most of the other songs, it’s hard to tell what’s vintage and not—when they were written, whether they’re directly derivative of old stuff or newly wrought in the approved style. “That Girl Ain’t Right” sounds like a basement tape from 30 years ago. “All Night Boppin’” is in the spirit of The Real Kids’ live covers of roots-rockers. “Fly Into the Mystery” sounds like The Velvet Underground and mentions Route 128, two things which remind you that John Felice was a charter member of The Modern Lovers. “Got It Made” has the steadiness of “Needles and Pins” but the characteristic Real Kids whine. The two songs with “Shake” in their title present two familiar yet distinct sides of The Real Kids. “I Can’t Shake That Girl” has simple lyrics meant to ride the song’s tricky opening riff. “Shake…Outta Control,” the album’s title tune, starts with drum beat and harmonica, and while the lyrics at first sound as basic as “I Can’t Shake That Girl”’s, it’s one of those personal proclamations of passion, independence, insecurity and angst that Felice is such a master at. He makes the need to dance sound like an affliction.

This album shakes. It’s timeless. Reunion albums come in many varieties. This is very much in the “as if they never went away category.” This is a band with the word “Real” in their very name, and they still sound real.