Dyslextasy, Live.Die.Repeat

Hey, Houston — we’ve got another Seattle pop-rock/grunge/punk band, only they’re striving for a more formidable approach and tackling issues of drunkenness, cop cars, last call, and party-crashers. Definitely “keen observations of human behavior,” you know, the ones they’ve been singing about for, oh, forty years or so.

A band with a “getting drunk” song? Get the fuck out! And all this time I was under the impression that those rock-and-roll boys were good, clean young men, not prone to alcohol or illegal drug consumption. Well, here it is: the rule-breaker, tension-builder, the CD with lyrics of such creative ingenuity. After listening to this ground-breaking, eye-opening album, my bowels shifted and rearranged themselves in order to compensate for my body’s uncomfortable subjection to such musical mastery.

Okay, no more sarcasm. If I wasn’t under the impression that I was supposed to take the lyrics seriously, this would actually go over well; otherwise, it’s another six songs of drunken silliness. With all due respect, I’d probably pay a $5 maximum cover to see them live just to get drunk and rowdy because they are obviously the type of band that’d encourage this sort of behavior. Their garage pop-rock and punk influences show through their grungy-metal-indie undertone, with semi-serious lyrics and dancelike organ melodies. On the positive side, the first track, “Bug in a Jar,” is amusing, a song about getting wasted and busted: “Feeling like a bug in a jar / sitting here alone in the back of a cop car.” Funny stuff.

The guitar sounds very pop-punk-ish, while the beat is solid and organ helps with the otherwise three-piece-band syndrome. The lead singer sounds as if he’s the spastic recording studio type and they have to keep him drunk to avoid knocking things around. Pop-rock grunge punk with drunk songs — is that a genre? Indie? Maybe just a very indie, post-grunge Seattle sound. They even do a “Highwayman” cover, which is somewhat impressive. “Imperial Stout” encompasses political elements while smiling and tapping along with a nice bass line. More beer. All in all, an indie-rock-beer band who you could book at your parties or sell your beer.