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Artist
Scott Kempner
12+ albums
Rock and Rollmale vocalists
about
Scott Kempner by Denise Sullivan Saving Grace Back when dinosaurs roamed rock stages, New York's the Dictators and Scott Kempner (aka Top Ten) came along with their pre-punk savage beat and contributed to their extinction. In the '80s Kempner wrote the songs and fronted the rootsier Del Lords, the kind of band you could rely on to deliver no BS rock 'n' roll in an age when carefully coiffed bands, from the hair metal variety to Flock of Seagulls, ruled the radio waves and MTV. An American guitar band could barely get arrested back then, but that didn't stop Kempner and his bros from running down the dream in jeans and workboats to the tune of a sweaty American beat. I don't think I was the only one back then who had a hard time distinguishing the Del Lords' urban boogie from Boston's twang-tinged Del Fuegos (when it came to roots-rock I relied on my home state's the Blasters). But when the Del Fuegos lent their image and sound to a beer company, which was just about the uncoolest thing a band could do at the time, sides were drawn and the Del Lords bumped up a few notches on the real deal, roots rock radar. Yes, that was all a frighteningly long time ago and today people of a certain age are more familiar with the Del Fuegos' Dan Zanes than they are with the Del Lords' Scott Kempner: Zanes is a children's music artist with old fans who play his records to their kids while Kempner's profile is significantly lower. He hasn't made a solo record since the early '90s (and when
