The Leaving Trains have been around for like, 25 years now, in one incarnation or another. They’re led by a cross-dressing rock n' roll journo/burnout/mad poet who goes by the apt handle of "Falling James" (he drinks a lot, see) and they sound kinda like the Stones, in the same way that Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers did, which is to say, when they got it right. When they don't get it right, they sound like a possessed, hallucinogenic punk rock band who loves the Gun Club almost as much as they love their own weird death trips. But, you know, it doesn't matter what state they're in, you always get SOME kind of shamanistic psyche n' roll exorcism out of the Leaving Trains Amazingly enough, after half a lifetime's worth of endless touring, this is the first official live Leaving Trains record, and although it's hard to capture the sheer gospel punk lunacy of the 'Trains on tape (which is probably why they haven't bothered, up to now), this is the closest yr gonna come without getting some on you, man. There's actually several live career spanning sets here - a dozen (tight, focused) tracks from a live radio show in 2002, two from a benefit show in Silverlake, also in '02, six half-in-the-bag drawlers from a rambling, spooky show in Holland in 1989, and the climactic, heart-rending ballad "Kinette", from a show in Philly, in 1987. The performances are not all transcendent, mind you - some are downright shoddy - but they are all authentic and honest and beautiful, in their strange and savage way. With 21 songs and only a couple covers here, your all-time favorite Trains track is probably on here somewhere, and even if it isn't, your NEW favorite Leaving Trains tune surely is.

- Sleazegrinder (sleazegrinder.com)