Fuck yes. More rocked out hardcore/punk from Manic Ride, this time courtesy of Australia's Jed Whitey, one of the finest acts of this nature currently tearing shit up. Surprisingly the songs range from as little as 25 seconds to more than five minutes, and what I like about this band is that they spice things up a lot with little bits and pieces of melody and a tighter, often slightly faster paced delivery that really keeps the energy level rollin'. A couple of these tracks were on the mighty "This Machine Kills Hippies" 7", which has been my only other exposure to these rippers until now. You're in for some throaty vocals that rest on the line of being actual singing, lots of full blown rock 'n' roll chord progressions, some bluesy little lead bursts, a few 70's-esque dual guitar licks, etc. In fact, "I am Spasticus" has a few riffs that are straight out of the Kiss handbook if you ask me, and I'm all for that! The token cover of the record is Devo's "Uncontrollable Urge", which they make fit in fairly well, it's just understandably a bit quirkier than their original material. The recording sounds killer, too. The bass presence is solid and the basslines don't simply mirror the guitars, the drums are nice and dense, the guitar tone is nice and controlled without getting too shabby in its appropriate dirtiness, the vocals are mixed perfectly, and so on. I don't think I have any complaints whatsoever. The layout keeps it minimal with an illustration of an insane Mexican wrestling match on the cover, a black and white band photo in the center spread, and minimal credits/additional imagery elsewhere. No lyrics or anything like that. However, there is an awesome CD-Rom portion of the disc with three videos. The brief snippet for "We Used Your Record as a Beer Coaster" is live, but "My Own Private Altamont" is basically "Black Metal Guy Goes to the Fair" - so a mohawked, corpsepainted black metal dude rides the merry-go-round, hits the bumper cars, eats cotton candy, etc. Fucking hilarious. Even better is the highly professional "I'm OK - You're Fucked", which is sort of a Twisted Sister rebellion/stick it to the man sort of thing. Classic, though. Fucking great, really. This band rules. I love their sense of humor, I love their attitude, I love their songs. They're catchy and offer just enough in the form of varied tempo changes and subtle riff alterations to keep things interesting. Very fucking recommended.
[Manic Ride]
Running time - 28:34, Tracks: 10
[Notable tracks: Are You Ready to Hate Us?, My Own Private Altamont, I am Spasticus, We Used Your Record as a Beer Coaster]
Manic Ride Records - http://www.manicriderecords.com
