52 tracks in less than 30 minutes from this one-man band, all recorded on an 8-track over the course of a few years. And yeah, you can tell. It's raw, wacky punk with a drum machine, a weird guitar tone that was probably recorded directly into the recording device, and doubled vocal yells that can get pretty annoying. Clearly there's more than a small dose of humor intended with this material, but it's not that funny in all honesty, and it's certainly not an enjoyable listen. Sure, "Punk Rock Aerobics" and "Mohawk Hater" have some funny moments, and it's hard not to get a kick out of a 10-second song that repeats the phrase "Black Flag tattoo." over and over again, but... let's be honest here - is there really a reason why this was released? I mean, there are people out there who will think this is absolutely hilarious, no doubt. And I do find it to be mildly amusing, but to pay for this thing to be professionally pressed and released? I don't know, I can't really see the necessity in that. A few songs have some mildly electronic elements happening (weird keyboards and shit like that), and at times there are some programmed basslines that thicken up the recording, but it's still nothing that I can get into. Visually everything is in simple high contrast red and white with the massive tracklist on the back, some abstract looking artwork and a few photos of Mr. California, plus brief liner notes about the recording of the record (sort of). What can I say? This is a novelty release in my book. There are a handful of samples and lyrics that are actually fucking hilarious, and one or two songs are really good, but the vast majority of it's silly noise that's not really worth paying much attention to, so...
[Proud to be Idiot]
Running time - 29:22, Tracks: 52
[Notable tracks: Mohawk Hater, Black Flag Tattoo, Long Way Home, David Lee Roth, Disco Jesus]
Proud to be Idiot Records - http://www.ptbi.8m.com
