me-thinks double e.p. is here (finally)

I. the setup

so how _do_ you have a cd release party without, um, cd's? "we were gonna give away hasslehorse cd's," said me-thinks frontguy ray liberio, referring to the precursor to "fort worth's shittiest band." "i've got lots of 'em at my house. we were totally influenced by pavement and guided by voices, except we used huge stacks and were louder than both of them put together."

all in all, the band considers the show (where fans who bought t-shirts received vouchers they can redeem for the new opus, make mine a double e.p.; it's also available online from indian casino records) to have been a success. "i threw up in my backyard later," said ray, "and [indian casino honcho] jack bensonhurst threw up on my amp in the back of trucker john's truck. my amp is going to have that puke stain on it for months!"

II. the romance of the artifact

it comes in an environmentally-friendly cardboard digipak, the two cd's -- subtitled worse and worser -- facing each other in such a way that you can imagine the labels rubbing off after awhile. the original idea was to have a double e.p. on a single cd, but then the band boyzzz figured they could spend more of jack's money this way. "plus," said ray, "this way you have to get up to change the cd more often."

III. the thing itself

worse

"speed hair": a re-recorded version of a toon that 'riginally appeared on their rock and roll another e.p. (my first exposure to the band), this pulls you in right away with the intro gtr hook and pummels you until you're lying insensate in the alley outside. or something like that.

"super fucked - big drunk": a me-thinks manifesto of sorts ("we go smokin' and drinkin' all night / we'll never make our money back but we're feelin' alright"), this shows just how far their recording trip has come, with nifty percussion and cool arrangements augmenting the wall-o'-sound attack.

"rock and roll another": lots to admire here, including the layers of gtrs and crisply-recorded drums. it should be noted that these tracks predate the recent personnel shift wherein will a.k.a. boyo moved to second gtr and trucker john was brought in to drum.

"burnout timeline": my fave toon on the _first_ e.p. of this set, this is a flag-waving rawk anthem with big gtrs and plenty of nostalgic allusions to the me-thinks' misspent youth, the dog star and the loco gringos in particular. could this mean they're, uh, growin' up? naaah.

"texas gigalo": this has richard hurley from blood of the sun laying down sleazy leads all over the place, particularly on the live at leeds-like jam section. ooh yeah.

worser

"bong macgyver": a song about the guy back in high school who could make a pipe out of anything. you knew him. we _all_ did. admit it. mike bandy from helldamncrap plays lead on this. he knew him too.

"permanent krokus": the tracklist says this is "partyboy," but don't you believe it. the lyrics illustrate one way in which explosive-related injuries could be integrated into the metalhead lifestyle. steedo and art from the riverside ramblers (who have apparently changed their band name again, this time to shotgun messenger) provide idiomatically correct vocal and gtr support.

"partyboy (drinks to infinity)": at el wreck, boyo introduced this by saying, "this is about high school," and it probably was. to get the full effect of marlin's gtr solo, you have to imagine him standing on one leg drinking a beer while he plays.

"mr. hardly matters": by me-thinks standards, this is almost jazz. (a secret revealed: i've been to boyo's house. he has bill evans rekkids there. and dave brubeck.) a little light relief leading into...

"god bless haltom city": the patriotic song they sing at me-thinks football games, this was appropriated from will's "solo" project, napoleon complex. "we ain't tryin' that hard, but we're doing alright" indeed. these self-styled underachievers rawk like a texan turbonegro without sacrificing their penchant for self-deprecating bullshit, and make it all look like laughs and high times. gawd bless the me-thinks!