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Review:
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Trash Fiasco is a punk band from Chicago,
and this is their second album.
When you describe a band as "punk" it can
mean many things. Most people think of Rancid
in their mohawks and leather jackets, or Green Day
with strange hair colors and catchy rhythms.
But X-Ray Spex were considered a punk band, as
were Talking Heads at one time.
My point here is that punk can mean a lot of
things. In this case, i think it best to
describe Trash Fiasco as a mix of The Misfits,
The Minutemen, The Cramps, and Dead
Kennedys. All of those bands fall under
the category of punk bands, and yet all are
drastically different, and Trash Fiasco takes
a little bit of each and swirls them together
to come up with something that is, to my ears,
very exciting.
The album kicks off with a staccato drum
riff, then the guitar comes in, squealing and
grinding, as the vocalist yelps and squeals
through the verses. The tune is called Ma.lin.ger,
and i can feel that this is a song to flail
around oddly to, to bounce up and down as the
vocalist thrashes as he sings his weird notes.
Then we get a nice chimy guitar riff on the
next tune, Mirror & Label. When
the vocalist comes in, his voice is deep and
Elvis-y with occasional yelps into a higher
register, a vocal line somewhere between Glenn
Danzig and Jello Biafro. On the choruses it
pounds furiously, after the loping verses.
The third song, Rat Brains, shambles
forward at a brearkneck pace, just pounding
instruments and vocal yowls. This really
reminds me of The Minutemen.
Tremolo dominates the guitar is Chimney
Smoke, which gives the song a
Cramps-feel.
Turned to Prey fluctuates between all
out thrash and meandering but intense
sections, channeling The Minutemen again here,
that kind of song where it seems that, at any
second, the whole thing could fly apart into
chaos.
The next tune, Moloch, clocks in at
five and a half minutes, by far the longest
tune here. Trash Fiasco stretch out, the bass
a deep fuzzy riff wandered in from some Doom
Metal song, and the vocals subdued.
After the longest song, Trash Fiasco follow
up with the seventy second One Bird,
just squealing punk guitar, breakneck drums,
and the voice jerking around.
And then finally we wrap it all up with Mama
Knows Best, which starts with a marching
drum riff as the vocalist cries into the
microphone, then for the last minute of the
tune, Trash Fiasco crank up the speed, pound
away, and scream it out.
It's a short record, but it moves fast and takes
no prisoners. Simply wonderful. |
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