The Atomic Bitchwax

(Tee Pee/MIA)
by Brian Varney

Right away, even before I played this album, The Atomic Bitchwax had my immediate attention for three reasons: One, because they have the best band name in recent memory; two, because the guitarist from Monster Magnet is in the band; and three, because there’s a naked chick on the album cover. Luckily, I didn’t have to focus much on ancillary stuff because that sort of thing can only hold the attention for so long (see the failure of the New York Dolls as an example) – image is fine, but kicking a lot of ass with your music is much more important. And luckily, for all seeking a new hard rock fix, the Bitchwax do exactly that. Though the temptation to compare them to Monster Magnet is strong, the two bands actually have very little in common save an appreciation for heavy ’70s rock. Whereas the Monster Magnet stuff is pretty songcentric, there aren’t any real tunes on this. However, I feel uncomfortable calling the Bitchwax a jam band because that term brings to mind ’70s live albums with side-long jam-medleys on Willie Dixon tunes, and that’s not the sort of thing the Bitchwax is doing. They’re more focused on instrumental parts throttling each other like the skronk-riff parts of Santana or the noodlier parts of the first UFO album, but with a rhythm section that’s constantly kicking a lot of ass. Imagine a band with the sound of Captain Beyond minus the tunes and the attack of the James Gang, and you’ve got a decent approximation of where this band’s focus lies. If you’re one of those types who’s always whining about songwriting, you probably won’t enjoy this very much. This is rock for people who like a lot of music in their music. To say it another way, Atomic Bitchwax are proponents of my friend Fes’ recipe for rock success, which is “Don’t talk to me about being a songwriter, just play a lot of cool-sounding riffs and yell over top of them.” He’s right and Atomic Bitchwax, for one, seems to know it.
(PO Box 1236 Canal St. Sta. New York, NY 10013)