The International Playboys - First Album
(Motron)
From the ear-piercing shrill of the opening guitar note of "American King Cobra," it's clear these Missoula, Montana punkers are graduates of the "loud... fast... rules" school of rock. Throat-shredding screamer, Colin Hickey howls his way through these ten tracks with the velocity and ferocity of Iggy on steroids. Of course, this is nothing that we haven't already heard from the new school of Scandinavian punk in the guise of Finland's Flaming Sideburns and Sweden's The Hives, so originality is out of the question.
While Hickey and Co. have no problem working up a sweat, it's pretty much all ado about nothing, as few songs rise above the mundane, sloppy, garage rock mentality. Special attention should be paid to highlights, "My Car Is An Alcoholic," which slows things down to a Sabbathian roar and even nicks the synth solo melody from The Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again," which could be a multi-level, genius pun if done intentionally (read: "Won't Get Fueled Again"), but that's way too deep for these cowpushers. I also liked the two finales: the anthemic theme song, "Playboy, Inc." and the hidden track, both of which probably sound great at about 2 A.M. on a Sunday morning with your head sloshing around a few keggers. While this is enough for some folks, and might appeal to fans of over-hyped noise-mongers like The Vines and White Stripes, it's a great big Excedrin Headacheý for others, who may not be fond of people screaming at them at the top of their lungs. My advice is to sit down, take a chill pill, and throw on John Prine's "Quit Hollerin' At Me." Otherwise, you may end up like the narrator of "Si Sick!," which announces, " I feel sick/Can't Handle This/No Cure for this/'Cause I'm fuckin' sick." Amen. Period. End of sentence. End of review.
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