Magic Wolf- No Brainer
Reviewed by Jeremy Thieroff
“Now is the hour of the wolf/put the children inside”. The first words out of Dave Wheeler’s mouth sets the tone for the rest of “No Brainer” by Magic Wolf. This CD is not for the weak at heart. “Magic Wolf” (the song) starts out with a slow chug and the afforementioned proclamation to beware and slowly builds into a machine-gun blast of noise. This disc is noisy as hell. Mike Rensland’s bass is ditorted to hell and back and gives every song the feel of something very metal. Jake Leger’s drums are powerful and give Wheeler a tough partner in crime to pummel out the rest of the songs.
“Midnite Mass”, the second track of nine, almost trips up the flow of things. It’s not a bad song per se, but it is disjointed. The bridge is good, the music is strong, it just lacks enough punch to follow-up the lead track. Thankfully things get back on track with “Wing Nite”. The drum intro is fanstastic, creating structure and tension at the same time. The bass, again, creates a dark mood and the riffs coming from the guitar tie it together. This song is really the one where Wheeler gets to show the creativity that fuels these tunes. Lyrics like “I’m ready for the flavor/I’m ready for the taste/I’m ready for variety/Don’t let it go to waste” and “Suck it off the bone/Swallow it down” are ridiculously funny. And ending it with “Your coming home with me” almost bring tears to the eye. Following it up with “Keg Stand”, with shrieking screams of “come on, come on, come on/do it, do it, do it!” shows exactly where Magic Wolf is coming from. This isn’t your pretentious shoe-gazer indie-rock with hipsters taking themselves WAY too seriously. This is slap-happy cock rock by a trio of jokers who decided to make songs that cause them to laugh under there breath.
“Disasteroid” is almost an instrumental save a few lines of vocals, but it pummels your ears. “Black Sandwich” talks about “the hunger” (get it?) and “Don’t Fix It” is just blatant speed and slapstick. One mistake is that the guys in Magic Wolf decide to end “No Brainer” with a long, repetitive instrumental called “Gateway/Dank Realm”. They were smart enough (along with producer Jason Kirker of Modey Lemon fame) to add tons and tons of noise and feedback to the song to make it grind away at your mind. Still, it seemed almost a cop-out to end a disc with so much energy on such a blase note.
The production of “No Brainer” is, all in all, very strong and does justice to the sound that Magic Wolf is trying to bring you. It makes the drums sound larger than life, make the bass sounds like your stuck in the thickest mud possible, and brings out the insane guitar solos that Mr. Wheeler brings to the equation. The vocals are a bit too low for what the guys are trying to achieve. I am a fan of making the vocals just another piece of the puzzle in most cases, but in this instance it detracts from he style. This is cock-rock full of tongue-in-cheek jokes that would make high-schoolers blush, so they should be a bit more prominent. But really, tat is the only flaw in the general sound of the disc. Buy the disc and go see Magic Wolf live. Just don’t be surprised if you wake up the next morning and your ears are bleeding. A lot.
8.5/10
To submit music to be reviewed, contact Jeremy at P.O. Box 101806, Pittsburgh PA 15237
