culture
Sound Advice: The Brown EP by Monster Truck
Hamilton's Monster Truck roll onto the scene with their debut EP, a fistful of unpretentious, booze-soaked boogie rock.
What’s better than a kitschy sleaze-rock band? A self-aware kitschy sleaze-rock band. You’re bound to get just that from Monster Truck. These bearded, greasy-haired Hamiltonians have just dropped The Brown EP (out today via Dine Alone), a stiff shot of beer-fuelled, testosterone-jacked riff rock that knows it’s beer-fuelled, testosterone-jacked riff rock.
Formed originally as a side project by members of more straight-laced bands like the Reason and Saint Alvia, Monster Truck are ’70s fetishists playing foot-stomping tunes that could score a tailgate party and/or a Fubar flick. Opener “I Am Freedom” sets the tone with a bluesy, swingy guitar hook over which lead vocalist Jon Harvey sings about being “Hercules in the bedroom” via a soulful wail awash in salt, piss, and whiskey. “Love Attack” follows suit with a slovenly dollop of boogie rock, but this isn’t entirely a ZZ Top–athon; “Seven Seas Blues” is a sludgy stoner-rock banger featuring eerie organs, doom riffs, and smart tempo switches. “Sworded Beest” (streaming above), meanwhile, is a balls-to-the-wall, Fu Manchu–ish number with an explosive bridge featuring guest larynx-shredding from Alexisonfire’s Greg Pettit.
Though meat-and-potatoes rawk often risks straying into overly serious, laughably bad Nickelback territory, The Brown EP is fun and irreverent enough to put on your iPod without having your inner music snob wince in disgust. It doesn’t quite reinvent the wheel, but it never sets out to do that in the first place. Besides, with booze riffs this awesome, you’ll want to stay off the road.