It’s okay, I guess. I had a big yawn at the end of it. They have energy, I’ll give them that, but it’s all kind of weighed down by a shitty performance and overly glossy production. I’d probably be able to get more into this STOOGES-meets-MÖTORHEAD sound if it had the grit of a punk band rather than the washed-out muck it serves up. The drums and everything about it just sound weak to me. Wake me up when this boring wave of punk is over.
Oh my god. When I first started listening to this, I couldn’t believe it was actually the LP I was reviewing, but here it is. This is bad. This just sounds awful, like it was recorded in somebody’s dingy apartment on a flip phone. The vocals are not sung, but spoken in this obnoxious deadpan voice. The voice of the “vocalist” is just bad, and the production is practically non-existent. There’s these really thin synth and drum machine sounds that made me really question if this was even a serious music project at all. He’s not even rhyming most of the time, and when he does, it makes me grit my teeth. On the song “Miss You,” it’s him talking as a mother who misses her son and wants him to come home. It just really drives me up a wall, because he talks in this wimpy, feminine voice while that awful synth music plays. Then when it gets to the “I miss you” part, he starts screaming like he’s getting his asshole waxed. It’s horrendous. It tries to critique punk rockers, and I would be able to get behind that, however I can’t help but notice that the music is atrociously bad. I can’t recommend this, not even to the most die-hard synth punk fans.
It’s hard to even care about this band. It’s mind-numbingly basic, and not in a good way. It uses tired punk rock clichés until it’s dried up. I’ll give it this though, “Juana La Cubana” is pretty good. It has a nice groove and chorus going for it. Aside from that, I can’t really give this LP that many props. It was so boring the first time I listened through it that I practically forgot it even existed until I had to revisit it for this review. It’s not intolerable, it’s just quite dull and boring to my ears.
It was just okay. The same way that eating white bread on its own is okay. It’s fine, but it’s nothing that’ll knock your socks off by just how good it is. It feels too familiar. Nothing about their sound feels original or like they’re doing anything fresh with it. At best, they sound like Keith Morris and Fat Mike drunkenly fucked to create an even more drunk hybrid of themselves so that child would go on to front a punk band. It’s not that bad. There were some lyrics I enjoyed, like on “Can’t Touch Me,” but to name the first song off your LP “Lower Than Shit”? That kind of made me side-eye the already hideous LP cover while listening to it. Not a horrible LP, just kind of bland overall.
This is right up my alley. It’s a husband-and-wife rock’n’roll duo on a budget, with crunchy guitars and primal drums. This formula can become one-note very quickly, but they’re able to switch up the pace very nicely, like the slow stomp of the intro to “Closer (Satan’s Watching)” and the upbeat chorus of “I Don’t Wanna Walk Alone.” I love the female backing vocals, they almost remind me of BEAT HAPPENING and they add a lot to the music. I don’t think the LP would be what it is without them, because it would be harder to ignore the fact that the singer sounds a lot like KING KHAN. They don’t reinvent the wheel, but this group is very good at taking the limited skills they have musically and just playing with as much energy as possible. Good LP, but I bet they sound even better live.
Not awful. Though it does seem like the production is the only thing to phone home about, the short length saves me from completely eviscerating it. I kind of had fun listening to it. The vocalist has some lines that made me laugh, and the guitar tone is nice and clear. I think if they work on it, they could be something special. However, some of the drum parts felt out of place, and I just don’t find anything super engaging going on here. It’s a decent listen if you just have it playing in the background, though.
