The Alter Boys

Item: The Exotic Sounds of the Alter Boys
Author: Mark Fisher

The Exotic Sounds of the Alter Boys

(2005)

Reviewed by Mark Fisher

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Label Fractured Transmitter Recording CompanyDecapolisJuly 2005

experimental surf rock

The Alter Boys features members of both Dog Fashion Disco and Mushroomhead as well as Jackass' Ryan Dunn. They formed while both bands were on tour with eighties metal legends WASP. Sound nuts? You don't know the half of it. It's as spastic and insane as it sounds on paper, maybe more so. Part metal, part insanity, part surfer rock, this is a band that contains more than enough talent to occupy a small country.

The opener, "Pigs and Pineapples" is a like a Caribbean anthem (something that becomes somewhat of a theme throughout) while songs like "Famine Ghost" and a "Little Pain Goes Along Way" hold up the heavier end of the ship. The heavy songs are very quirky for the most part and could easily be on either Dog Fashion Disco album. There are even some soft, dare I say, pop ballads on the album such as "Surrounded by Flies" and the "Brady Bunch in Hawaii" sounds of "Little White Lies." Thrown in a cover of Tom Waits "Yesterday is Here" and guest appearances by Johnny Knoxville and Bam Margera and you have one altogether confusing piece of music.

Overall I think I like this CD. It jerks you around a lot, which gets on my nerves if I'm not in the right mood. Still though, there is something entirely likeable about it because the intrigue keeps me coming back over and over. I say check out some song samples first.