The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster - 'Chicken' (No Death)
4/5
By: Joshua K
The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster really are insane. Reviving the 1950's rock meets 1970's punk sound of The Cramps. Singing songs about, ahem, 'celebrating' your mother (one of the standout tracks on last fall's debut LP 'Horse Of The Dog'). Creating an alter-ego band - painted-green weirdoes, The Boogs - and featuring a song 'by' them, 'Palomino's Dream', on CD2 of this single.
Which brings us to 'Chicken', the third track to be lifted from said album, about someone whose 'head's too big / but [their] mind's too small'. A tidy package of demented hardcore rockabilly, the drums roll, the guitars drive, the bass swings and singer Guy McKnight plays Bible-thumping preacherman in a perfect Ian Curtis-as-Elvis Presley monotone.
It makes no sense. It shouldn't work. Yet it so does. 2'49" that quickly become one of the year's rock thrills.
Heavy-rock fans should also note production work by Amen main-man Casey Chaos on the b-sides; as you'd expect, he milks extra shouting and crunch out of three tracks, including the appropriately named 'Sacred Metal'. Though, to these ears, the best of the bonus songs is 7" exclusive 'Lazy Bones'—which unexpectedly tosses 'whoops' and vocal delivery worthy of early Red Hot Chili Peppers into the blues-rock soup.
Artists in this article: The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster
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