Published on Jan 20, 2004
Iron fist in a velvet glove, hell. RPM, who has with one CD
ascended to my Personal Pantheon Of Coolness, is more like a
titanium fist in a sandpaper glove with little spiky bits all over
it. She’s mean as fuck, she’s smart as a whip, and she’ll be only
too glad to kick your ass if you need it or if you piss her off.
She has punk sensibility, in-your-face songwriting, an active
social conscience, and there are _string hits_ on
Irrational Anthem, her debut CD.. In short, she’s damn near
perfect. So’s the CD.
Sure, It has PARENTAL ADVISORY stamped all over it. (And if you
think the lyrics are bad, you should read the liner notes. Gotta
love an artist who tells Clear Channel “Fuck you.” It’s
refreshing.) But under all the vitriol and attitude is some tight,
tight singing; brilliant lyrics; and generally great rock and roll.
This is great stuff — and best of all, it’s not posturing
calculated to sell CDs to teenysomethings. April Lavigne only
WISHES she was half — no, hell, a sixteenth — as much a riotgrrl
as RPM.
The production (courtesy of Frank Gryner, who has worked with
Rob Zombie, The Crystal Method, and A Perfect Circle) is adequate
to good; there’s occasional fuzz in the mix, but nothing that RPM’s
vocals can’t blow through. Musicianship is good to excellent;
there’s some snarling guitar throughout the CD that counterpoints
the anger and passion really well.
In some ways, though, the music is secondary (though filled with
occasional surprises like the aforementioned orchestra hits). The
heart and soul of Irrational Anthem is RPM and all the things that
piss her off — and it’s exhilarating. In forty minutes, she
manages to flip the lyrical bird at organized religion
(“Goddamnit”), average sheeplike people (“Don’t Be You”), the
mainstream media (“Girl Next Door”), false friendship (“Unlike
Me”), and as a piece de resistance tells a persistent suicide to go
ahead and jump (“I Won’t Stop You”). You may not agree with
everything she says, but you can’t fault her passion, her fire, or
the depth of her feeling. Something is rotten everywhere you look,
and RPM’s apparently tired of ignoring it. It’s easy to call this
cynicism; but is it cynicism if it’s really this fucked up?
Halfway through
Irrational Anthem, RPM neatly summarizes herself in two
lines: “Am I making you nervous? Well, I should”. Frankly, I think
we could use some more nervous, ’cause the emperor is out of
clothes. If you’re tired of media hype and fake rebels, do yourself
a favor and check out the real thing.
For more information, check out
http://www.rpm.tv.