Published on Jan 23, 2004
It did not take long to ‘get into’ this band. This punk trio
from Toledo, Ohio, only gives you 20 minutes to form an opinion
about them and, frankly, if you would decide you don’t like them, I
don’t think the band would really care. This is one of those
releases where the band sounds like they would play for 5 or 50 or
even 500 people. Bassist/vocalist Steve Wells, guitarist/vocalist
Todd Evans and drummer/vocalist Steve Irby ooze “we’re buddies
playing songs we like to play.”
This is evident on the lyrically pointed “Big Radio Hit,” where
Wells sings, “I like 12 guage shotguns and Monty Python and rockin’
with Irby and T. My CD collection is mostly Black Sabbath” which
foreshadows the last track on this CD — a punked up cover of “The
Trooper” for which the band wrote “We all know The Trooper is an
Iron Maiden song. . . “.
Prior to “The Trooper,” you have to pause at the humor in “The
Tattoo Guru” where Wells sings “A guy walked up and said to me “Hey
Dude! Check out my new tat!” . . . followed by “my cousin is so
original/ his ass says “Exit only” . . . and the song’s conclusion
“If I want to see your tattoo, I will ask you.”
There are some punk bands, like Dirty Rotten Imbecils, that were
gone the day they taught musicianship. The Lazy American Workers,
thankfully, were not absent that day. Guitarist Evans riffs his way
through straight-forward riffs and drummer Steve Irby powers the
backbeat with cymbals and quick snare fills, especially on “The
Tattoo Guru.”
So when you arrive at “The Trooper,” that is the real test of
the band. By this time, you’ve heard them run through 13 songs that
never cross the 3:00 mark <heck “Whudja Call Me?!” barely
crosses 40 seconds> and then you get to the 3:25 cover of “The
Trooper,” which adheres closesly to the original, but at a faster
pace. As a base of comparison, I pulled out the (stellar and highly
recommended double-CD)
Slave to the Power — The Iron Maiden Tribute release on
Meteor City, to listen to
Holy Mother’s cover of this track. It boils down to Lazy American
Workers nailing the parts, having fun, and sounding like they’re at
a bar jamming.
The tacked-on ending . . . I can’t name the song but I can
identify it’s from a Metallica song and it’s an ending the band
plays in concert. It concludes the band’s romp with style. You
can’t go wrong quoting Metallica.