 Fassbender - www.fassbender.co.uk
Behave! (released 2005)
Dog Shit Records - www.dogshitrecords.com
This album kicks off with some really catchy and poppy tracks, that suck you right on in! Sounding better than any garage band ever, Fassbender blast out of the gates and run you over with the bomping power and flurry of sing along choruses! Following a couple of tracks, the disc seems to slow down into a roots rock sound. Not fully leaving the rock n roll genre, the album just seems to vaporize into a bluesy rock. It's not bad, in fact it's really fucking good! My problem is it's as though someone throws a light switch and bang you move from rowdy rock to down home rock. It just seems weird I guess. I really dug the fast paced rocking tunes featured on "Come On Baby" and "Decadent Days", the latter witha fine piano accompaniment. Maybe that's the turn to the rootsy sound, small interjections of different, non-current rock n roll instruments that bleed into the background until they become the primary focus... Not that the piano ever takes the lead on any track, far from it... But it does suggest where the down home feel may arise from. What does manage to take the lead on this disc is Dr. Fassbender's vocal stylings and Honest John Plain's outstanding guitar work. Honest John, for those that don't know have been involved with German punk rockers Die Toten Hosen. Back to this whole thing about a switch from garage rock to blues rock... I've heard this switching of genres before, but most of the time it happens on concept albums, or when a prolific songwriter wants to get a bunch of ideas onto one disc. I don't know if that is the case here, but whatever the reason might be for the change... I like it and you will too. That is if you're into a garage rock meets blues rock band from the UK, and playing ten tight little tracks. -MG |
