Murder 1
“On High”
(TMC)
Despite just about everyone’s best attempts, butt-rock just refuses to die. I think CD stores should start offering it as a legitimate category. They could have like, “Hip-Hop”, “Rap”, “Nu-Metal”, “Mexican Polka”, and “Butt-Rock”. That would be rad. Murder 1 is not rad. They would easily fit under the “Butt-Rock” sub genre. It’s easy to spot a butt-rocker because they’ve generally got ridiculous power ballads (“Oh High” contains “Helm’s Deep”, a Tolkien-inspired labor of love that is as silly as it is bizarre sitting right next to the track “Pimp Killer”), cheeseball production value, and accidentally funny lyrics. Murder 1 is really no exception to any of these rules.
Their ten-track LP takes the elements of garage-style classic rock that nobody really likes: the pointless guitar solos that seem to wank on forever, the warbled lyrics that aren’t nearly as cool as you want them to be, etc., and spreads them liberally throughout the entire release. Can I get a what-what? It’s going to take UN sanctions to keep more of these from getting produced. And am I the only one who has a tough time finding Mexican Polka whenever I go into the Virgin Megastore? Didn’t think so.
