I’ve started the summer off proper. Been to a slew of live shows as of late and I’ll be damned they’ve all been great. My attendance to club shows has been lacking this past year. Living in Los Angeles it you can burn out on live tunes pretty quick. Not because the music isn’t any good, it’s all that comes with attending live music out there. There’s the traffic, the parking, finding a designated driver…I realize that those are all car related but the fact is when going out constantly involves getting behind the wheel, it gets old fast. The LA crowds also are pretty iffy too. Ask any entertainer, it’s hard to get anyone in LA to go out to see anything. Half the time the crowd seems apathetic about any band that they specifically didn’t come to see. I hate that. Especially when it involves rock music. Apathy has never encouraged a crowd to surge along with the band. You gotta get sweaty. Get messy. Make it happen. When you go out for live music, you’re guaranteed exposure to at least 2-3 new bands in a single night. Not all good, but hey, you can’t win all the time and that’s okay. All the stinkers make the great ones that much better.
This past weekend I attended the record release for the band BOY TOY. I already knew they were a great band, so I entrusted them to pull together a lineup of other great bands. I had faith. That faith led me through a Friday night thunderstorm to a small bar called Baby’s All Right. BOY TOY didn’t go on until 11, but I had to check out the first of 3 opening acts. The little taste I got from their Soundcloud account was motivation enough to push me through the downpour. That and the promise of free Cutty Sark. As you guys know, I’m a sucker for whiskey. I’ll do a lot of heavy lifting when promised cheap tickets and free booze. As promised the Cutty Sark was flowing and the first opener METLALEG took the stage right on time. This week’s ARTIST OF THE WEEK: METALLEG.
Let’s kick things off with their song Leather and Velvet off of the METALLEG EP. Someone was nice enough to take the time and cut a video to this song made up of footage from the horror movie Basket Case (movie about an evil deformed formerly conjoined twin who lives in a basket) and some other flick that features a demon baby being dropped into a blender. Time well spent. I wasted a good amount of time Googling the name of this evil baby movie but you can only do that for so long before you start getting grossed out.
Despite the name, Metal s not METALLEG’s jam. They’ve dubbed themselves “gutter pop” and the sub-genre is fitting. Each track features short bursts of rock harmonies and catchy ass hooks. Their Ramones influence is quite obvious. Hell they even have the count off at the top of most of their tracks. Bottom line, these guys are rock and roll. They’re what rock and roll used to be, and what it should be. Their newest album Hit of The Week is a batch of old-school New York punk tracks that are delight to the eardrums. Here’s their single off of Hit of The Week titled…Hit of The Week.
My favorite track, as of late, has been the simplistic blast that is Bleed A Lot. I can’t stop playing that song. There isn’t a whole lot to it, but who cares? If This doesn’t get you moving then I think you’ve got problems.
I like METALLEG. I like them a lot. I think you guys will too. They know what they want to do and they do it. No bells and whistles, just rad rock songs. Check them out. You won’t regret it. Even if you do regret it, that feeling will be fleeting because their album is only 20 minutes long so it wasn’t a huge time investment for you anyway.
Big Hugs,
Kelly
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