John Reis is the fucking don. Consider the entire Reis rock pantheon - Drive Like Jehu, Hot Snakes, Sultans and Back-Off Cupids - all four of these being some of my very favourite bands, especially the first two. But what about his most successful project - Rocket From The Crypt - how come I’ve never really been into them?

Bizarrely enough, my initial disdain for this band dates back to Bolton Computer Centre. There used to be a fair few regular customers at this place, the majority of which were harmless but one kid that came in was a really annoying shit-talker who used to harp on about RFTC and how they were his favourite band (doggers might remember this kid, maybe not though!). At the time I concluded that anything this fucking idiot likes must suck, and so didn’t really need to take it any further.

Not long after, RFTC achieved fairly major commercial success with ‘On A Rope’ being blasted out everywhere. “Ah, so this is what they sound like? They have a saxophonist?? Fuck that!”. Anyone who knows me knows that I hate ska, so anything that comes across vaguely ska-like (i.e with trombones / sax / whatever) just isn’t going to get played.

The final nail in the coffin was that I later found out that RFTC was one of the reasons for my beloved Drive Like Jehu’s demise as Reis decided to pursue that project full time instead.

So yeah, just recently I decided to give them another chance purely on a whim. I’ve downloaded their discography (don’t tell the RIAA…) and I’ve been listening to most of their stuff just to see if they’re really as bad as I’ve made them out to be in my mind. Truth is, they’re not - I’m finding that I actually quite like them. I still prefer the stripped down sound of Sultans, so I’m drawn more to their songs like on `Circa: Now’ over `Scream, Dracula, Scream!’ for example.

And I’m still not sure about that sax.