Hooch

Maximum Shindig (Futurist)
by Scott Hefflon

From the cover, I’d anticipated candy-striped retro-pop ditties à la Jellyfish. “Trapeze” is literally a circus of chaotic tomfoolery, and it only gets weirder from there on out. “Steve McQueen” starts with some charmingly atrocious ba-ba-ba’s before launching into cosmic guitar riffing and Debby-Harry-with-a-chest-cold vocals. The pseudo-Indian vocal warbling in the background is a great foreshadowing to the intro of “Club Ego.” From there, the songs split between peppy, funky tunes littered with the cheesiest keyboard sounds possible, maracas, unidentifiable noises, and these really dopey ballad things. A nice novelty album and probably a wacky live show, but not crucial to your collection.