Sometimes we take the easy way out, when we throw our dead animals into the bushes, instead of carrying them over to a trash receptacle. Well here's a British hardcore band who's first release contained ten super short tracks, with only one lasting longer than two minutes.
God dang they were expensive, the songs sold for ninety nine cents apiece. So the album costed about ten bucks for under thirteen minutes of music. It's got cool looking album art, so maybe the music sounds cool. Entitled
Midnight in the Bellagio, the Bellagio is an elegant casino in Las Vegas, and is known for it's high stake poker tables. So I took the ten dollar gamble from itunes. Did it pay off or was it just a bust?
The vocals are rough and gruff, with a who gives a fuck attitude. This is a concept album with an amusing story line. It's about a young punk rocker, who wins a lot of cash at a casino in Las Vegas, and lives high on the hog for a couple of nights. He becomes overly confident in his poker playing and then goes broke by gambling. Me and Lorenzo Rollin' in a Benzo features heavy bass lines, plucked as boldly as though proudly displaying the glamour of cruising in a Mercedes Benz, which is a luxury car. A Score a Drink is dominated by chugging bass rhythms, with a song that passes through as fast as a gambler chugging down a free beer, during the card shuffle.
Most of the musical textures are simple and remind me of the harder side of early eighties punk rock. Easy Street is a lively and light hearted song. He's happy that he won a lot of money, gambling at the casino that night. The guitar slices and dices with modest high note melodies. Then chops with power chords and lets them suspend for extra emphasis. The title track,
Midnight in the Bellagio, starts as a carefree song then transforms into a grimmer mood. It's about gambling at the Bellagio, like the title suggests. He starts off as a high roller and ends up losing big time at the card tables. The music begins with shimmering guitar melodies, then takes off with some dark shredding halfway through. Me and Chester Rollin' in a Fiesta, is about bumming a ride from someone in a Ford Fiesta, which is an economy car. The tempo picks up with a desperate frenzy, like the panic of a stranded person looking for a way out. The drums roll along with somewhat melodic beat patterns. Then the music abruptly stops, with the audio of people talking.
Lay It On The Line are a throwback to early eighties hardcore, when the genre was starting out. There's nothing too extravagant here, the music is tame and simple. It turns out that this was released as a 7" vinyl record in the UK. I've got a 7" vinyl disc from
Aboriorth, so I know that they're not very big. The
Aboriorth release was regarded as an EP, with two songs that were probably five or six minutes long each. So maybe the Lay It On The Line 7" could be considered to be an EP, with ten super short songs. So for ten bucks, did it suck, or was it worth a fuck? For what it is, it's got a very interesting story, with a fun presentation.
Midnight in the Bellagio breaks even and then some. It's just simple music, to entertain simple people like me.
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