It was good to hear that one of the few interesting punk bands today, Blaster the Rocketboy, had signed with Jackson-Rubio and changed their name. Maybe their creativity and lyrical prowess would be given the production and direction it needed to break out of the indie sloppiness that plagued their first two releases.
No such luck. The production is still muddy and the songs still sound all the same. But at least they don't fall into the commercial pop punk rut. This is real-deal old school punk heavily influenced by The Dead Kennedys, but also by rockabilly and maybe The Misfits, with shaky seizure vocals that spit out their campy horror and sci-fi lyrics with spooky style. Read the lyrics while you listen, and you might forget the crappy mixing job. They transform tales of monsters, aliens, and planets into analogies for sin, spiritual enemies, and our fallen world. Take these lines from "Frankenstein's Monster Wants a Wife":
Why do I abandon my endeavor to sever
to pick up the needle and sew it back together?
Oh, it's neverending, can't you see?
Just cut this hand off, it's offending me!
Once dead, but now...
It's alive!
It's alive!
And so is punk rock, in the misshapen form of Blaster the Rocketman.
2.5 tocks
Other coverage for this album
The Phantom Tollbooth 2000Reviewed by Michial FarmerWhat do you get when you cross The Ramones, The Crucified, Batman, Neverhood-era Terry Taylor, CS Lewis' space trilogy, They Might Be Giants, bad science fiction movies, Ninety Pound Wuss, and Paradise Lost? A rough version of Blaster the Rocketman's new album! I'm really not quite sure how to describe The Monster Who Ate Jesus. It's more bizarre and unnerving than any CD I've ever heard, but the…The Phantom Tollbooth 1999Reviewed by Todd BallardWith the exception of a few greats, Christian music boasts a hodgepodge of musical genres that do nothing more than mimic what the world is currently doing. But occasionally a band rises to show that we are a "peculiar people" and Blaster the Rocketman is indeed a peculiar group. Although reviewers and fans alike have often compared Blaster to the Dead Kennedys and the Dickies, there really isn't…
