Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Strung Out - Prototypes and Painkillers

I like me some Strung Out. I heard their second record Suburban Teenage Wasteland Blues for the first time driving from San Fran to Portland and dug it's punk-metal miscegenation a whole lot. They were fast and tight, and it was pretty obvious that at least one of the guitarists and definitely the drummer were pretty fucking metal. A lot of Fat bands are tighter than the average punk band, but Strung Out really raise the bar. The Peart-ified drummer is Jordan Burns. You may know him from the motocross circuit or his BMX team MotoXXX or maybe you've just heard them on one of the million skate or BMX videos they've been in. I never skated, but Strung Out sure makes me want to.

Prototypes and Painkillers is their second collection of 7" and comp and unreleased tracks from our heroes. If I may digress for a second: to tell tales out of school, Fat sends download cards for promo, or at least to people on the JS-NYC level of things. They work fine, and it's always a pleasure to be serviced by Fat, but either send a PDF of the booklet or just send the damn record. Especially as it regards comps like this. Even if I wasn't going to write up the record, I want to know where the tracks came from and get some background. I can't be the only asshole who is both a dork and wants to write knowlegably about a band. And you've made a big deal about lowering all the prices on all your releases to under $10 and that's 100 percent commendable. So send promo with full art, willya!

That said, this is a great record. If you like Strung Out, that is. There isn't a track here that doesn't sound like Strung Out, so there's very little chance you'll blunder into Prototypes and Painkillers accidently because you liked the unrepresentative slow song. The gents afford you 25 tracks for your consumer dollar, all of them tight, hooky and so Fat these guys must bleed Crisco. Metal leanings are confirmed by the sound in general, but the cover of Bark At The Moon seals the deal. I'm not sure who took the solo (why? no liner notes!) but he Jake E. Lee's the shit out of that track without a hint of irony and I like it very much.  The other tracks tread a nice line between the speediness of the average Fat band and the technicality of a metal outfit. It's all hooks, too. Check out some tracks here then pop on over to Fat Mike's place and see how much under $10 you can get Prototypes and Painkillers for.

R

1 comment:

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