Lousy

In all my years as a music fan, there’s always been one question that I could never answer. Why the hell do bands choose self deprecating names? Then I finally figured it out. They do it out of courtesy; they do it to make the reviewer’s life a little easier. They do it so the reviewer will be guaranteed to make a bad pun. Thanks Lousy, I won’t let you down! Ok, here it goes: Lousy is anything but.

Lousy didn’t have a lot going for them at first. Their album came in a thin plastic wrapper (which wouldn't have mattered, except for the fact that the booklet was stuck to the plastic), their press release was almost entirely in German, and the disc absolutely refused to play the first two times I tried to listen. But once I actually managed to hear the music, I was pleasantly surprised. Lousy reminds me of bands like Agnostic Front, The U.S. Bombs, and The New Bomb Turks. That means they play good old fashioned, sing along punk rock with a dash of oi. The one thing that really stands out about this band is the vocals. A lot of metal vocalists are criticized for sounding like the Cookie Monster, well this guy really does sound like him. Normally this would be associated with low screaming, but these vocals are sung. Half the time I was expecting the next line to be “C is for cookie”, but alas, it never happened. Strangely enough though, I started to get used to and even started to like the singing after a while. Hey, it’s not like pretty singing would’ve fit in well on this album anyway.

Lots of international bands seem to have a problem conveying their lyrical message in English (Burning Heads anyone?). I can’t say that Lousy is much different: “What is wrong with this town? I sit in my car and drive around. I look to the right, only ugly people on that side, nasty clothes and stupid hair, a lot of uniformed guys, this is not rare.” It’s not Shakespeare, but I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt since English isn’t their first language. There are plenty of American bands who have no such excuse.

So basically, if you’re into any of the bands I’ve mentioned above you should check this out. I’m not totally sure about the availability of this disc, but if you come across it, don’t hesitate to pick it up.

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