50 Million

Bust the Action (Broken)
by Jon Sarre

I’m holding in my hands the cure for a good mood: 50 Million‘s new record, Bust the Action. Maybe I’da been bummed out anyhow, but this disc sure don’t help. There’s all this trashcan drum sound and cheese sound effects and old movie samples interspersed with hardcore guitar noise chordage side by side with acoustics bangin’ Dylan-like riffs as performed by Tesla in their landmark Five Man Acoustical Jam record or movie, or whatever the hell it was. The vocalists, who oughtta keep their day jobs, vary ‘tween bad Rollins imitations, bad Thor, God of Thunder and Car Crashes imitations and harmonized warbles (when they wanna showcase their sensitive side). On the upswing, I mistook one song (“Alien and Robot”) for a sped-up Blue Öyster Cult tune (the chorus, I think it’s “Another planet for you,” sounds like “Burnin’ burnin’ for you”). It’s not, though.
(PO Box 460402 San Francisco, CA 94146)