Oct 19, 2014

Music Review: Son of a Gun-No Bread





















     Son of a Gun's 'No Bread' is exactly the type of album for which my journey through garage rock five years ago began; plainly direct in its mission to rock out. Rocking out is a noble goal for anyone over the age of 30 'cause it's the largest middle finger we can give to a society that would have us behave like pacified children. 
     Whether or not any of us chooses to accept it, The Light is dying more everyday. Somebody's gotta take that Dylan Thomas verse to heart. Somebody's gotta model the lunacy/idiocy/hedonism/hysteria that'll be the Yin to society's boring/suppressive Yang. Son of a Gun are proud members of that ever-growing club. 
     The "Bread" in 'No Bread' probably refers to money, but I like to also take it as actual carbohydrates or empty calories that turn into unwanted fat cells. The phrase. "all Killer, no Filler" was invented to describe 'No Bread'. Son of a Gun hardly ever reduce their BPM here. 'Peel Off' begins with, "I walked into a tattoo shop. I said, 'Gimme everything you got'"; which describes Son of a Gun's mad approach to their music.
     Speaking of "Gimme everything you got!", 'No Bread's cover art is a massive slice of Awesome. It depicts Lewis Carol's Alice sitting among stuff that's guaranteed to transport her. Firstly is a turntable stereo system. Judging by the semi-cloudy-but-otherwise-clear sky that's painted onto the dust cover, music could certainly take here there. To her immediate left is what looks to be a 70's model, fifteen passenger van. It's too large and too clean to be a party van. Someone is driving, but they're the only person pictured in said van and what looks to be heavy rain can be seen through half the windows. Kinda hard to interpret that image. In front of Alice sits some sort of (I'm guessing) South American folk mask or icon. It looks like it could be a personified sun. No quite sure what to make of that either. However, Alice doesn't disappoint 'cause she's gripping one of those infamous drugs Lewis Carol gave her from which to choose. Looks like Alice has some options once again. I think the wax provided by Son of a Gun to place on that turntable platter might be The Ticket, Alice.


                                                                                                                       The Verdict: 4 Bedpans

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