Clearing Out The Mailroom: Tuesday, June 10, 2008

By Pete Freedman Tue., Jun. 10 2008 at 9:41 AM

Categories: Clearing Out The Mailroom

We’ve got quite a backlog of CDs we've never gotten around to, so we’re going to try to chip away at the pile with this regular feature. Some are left over from previous music editors, others fell by the wayside because they were trumped week after week by albums that looked more promising. The plan: to take five at a time and play each CD for as long as I can stand it.

Blowing Trees
Blowing Trees (San Antonio)
The band’s name (slang for smoking weed, in case you haven’t been listening to much hip-hop lately) and mean mugging on the back cover had me expecting rap-rock. So the girly singing and dramatic emo-rock guitar threw me for a loop. These guys would fit right in at The Door. [Editor's Note: They're actually playing The Cavern on June 28]
I made it to: halfway through Track 2.

One of the Boys
Katy Perry (Santa Barbara, CA)
This is very teen-friendly electronica-tinged pop rock from a proud girly girl. So teen-friendly that the word “jerking” (or maybe “jacking?”) is censored from the line “I hope you hang yourself with your H&M scarf/While j******** off, listening to Mozart” in the song “UR So Gay.” That song is a pretty clever kiss-off to some generic hipster. This CD probably has a shelf life of six months before the text-message teen-speak and Greg Wells-produced accompaniment is totally passé. Also, wasn’t there some other (female) singer who had a hit single called “I Kissed A Girl?”
I made it to: Through Track 2, then skipped to “UR So Gay.”

Born to be Wilder
Webb Wilder and the Beatnecks (Nashville)
Average bar rock. Snore.
I made it to: Track 2

Roadside Altar
The Slow Poisoner (San Francisco)
I really wanted to like this album. The Slow Poisoner is a one-man gothic-rockabilly character who sings about curses, disease, monsters and death. With a good rhythm section and another guitarist, it be an interesting psychobilly band. As it is, his weak, shaky voice and lackluster guitar parts just aren’t enough to carry it.
I made it to: Track 4.

Kis Kis Kill Kill
HorrorPops (Los Angeles)
Surf- and punk-tinged rockabilly with a female singer going overboard with a not-quite-convincing tough-chick shtick. “I’m from the wrong side of town,” she claims in “Missfit.” I highly doubt that. But there’s a funny part in that song where the band sings “My fist/In the middle of your face” to the tune of Madness’ “Our House.” Psychobilly fans will love it.
I made it to: Track 4. --Jesse Hughey