30 Foot Fall

Acme-143 (Fearless)
by Scott Hefflon

I’m gonna make a real stretch and say Houston, Texas’ 30 Foot Fall sound like Guttermouth. Actually, their press kit said that. With songs like “People Are Stupid” and “Constipation,” ya know ya ain’t gettin’ some stringy-haired beatnik performing free-verse poetry to the snappy sounds of punk. Well, “Cheese” cleverly prints the wrong lyrics, then tirades about some wild shit over the refrain of “Stupid Punk Rock Song” (and the Slayer riff was appreciated), and “Bad Hair Day Punx” starts with Travolta’s whining about his dad hitting his hair, then lists the hair products endorsed by Teen Punk Nation. Actually, never mind, these guys are the kinda guys you can listen to and read, but singin’ along with ’em might take a bit of practice. “Feel Like Morrissey” is obviously worth checking out, complete with clap track, a whistling organ riff, and a vocal snarl Ben Weasel’d appreciate. Truthfully, some of the songs carry a disturbing subtext of, shiver, heavy metal. A guitar rhythm here, a production trick there, but man, it’s frightening to find yourself jamming on something Ratt mighta written. Luckily, the Guttermouth formula predominates, sprinkled with a bit o’ Screeching Weasel. Covering Billy Joel’s “Still Rock ‘n’ Roll to Me” was very necessary, right down to the skaed out sax solo and chill groove contrasting the speedpunk bulk of the song. And thanks for the “Whoo-oo!” at the end. “Punk Rocks In Your Head” may be a self-defeating idea (now there’s a bright idea – hate your fans), but it’s a catchy-as-shit song. Acme-143 looks as if it has a shitload of tracks, but most of it is due to track 16, “Willing To Survive One Day At A Time Like The Band Survivor That Wrote The Song ‘Eye Of The Tiger.'” And while the beginning of bonus track #30 is painfully silly, when they break down to the all-vocal beatbox freeform goof-rap, they totally rock. “I got your mom in a tank fulla fishsticks/I’m comin’ atcha like a mindless jellybean.” All the suckers in the house say “yeah.” Closed-captioned for the rhythmically impaired.