Halfcocked

The Last Star (Dreamworks )
by Scott Hefflon

Remember Vixen? No? Well, ya won’t remember these girls in a few years either, so don’t waste your brain cells. Halfcocked use AC/DC to explain why they write stripped-down, predictable, (cliché-)pounding rock songs that leave absolutely no impression whatsoever. But they look pretty cool and they wear all the latest glammy/trashy fashion, so, like Kittie, ya kinda deal with the bottom-scraping music to check ’em out. The band’s from Boston, as is Executive Producer of Powerman 5000 (ahem) “Spider One.” I’ve made fun of those silly dopes for years, and I’m far from done. In his infinite wisdom, “Spider One” saw a buck to make, so he’d have a back-up plan when people catch on that his band blows, er, ah, he wanted to give back to the scene or something fake and tiresome… Maybe he simply figured Halfcocked deserved to be heard outside of Boston’s city limits, seeing as that’s their former label Curve of the Earth’s reach (he should know, PM5K started on CotE), and he’s right.

I think guys and gals alike would embrace a movement of trashy, energetic female rock, ass-kickin’ like Charlie’s Angels (who jammed to “punk” in the form of Blink 182, not “rock” in the form of, um, see?) cuz if there were a lot of bands like this, then we could celebrate only the good ones (and simply ogle the hot ones) and dismiss the lousy and mediocre ones (unless they wore really short skirts). As it is, we have to embrace even unexceptional bands like Halfcocked, simply cuz the idea is good. Get a couple Turbonegro CDs and watch porn on mute. No, seriously…
(www.halfcocked.com)