Blazing Haley Mas Chingon
By Frank
Meyer, Contributing Editor
Thursday, August 22, 2002 @ 10:41
PM
 |
|
(Road
To Ruin Records) |
 Taking their cue from the punk-a-billy sounds of Reverend
Horton Heat and the rootsy hard rock leanings of Jason and the Scorchers,
Santa Barbara’s Blazing Haley raise some serious hell on their sophomore
effort, Mas Chingon. Mixing equal bits of rock-a-billy rhythms,
OC punk attitude and heavy metal riffing, Blazing Haley have been carving
themselves a nice little niche in the California music scene by playing
all the hot rod rallies and car shows along the coast and making some
scene stealing appearances on the Warped Tour and Hootenanny. On Mas
Chingon, the band makes a serious case for being not only the baddest
band in the land, but one of the best too.
On tracks like “Time To
Burn (Straight To Hell)” and “Never Again,” Blazing Haley -- named after a
fire that engulfed the singer’s home on Haley Street in their hometown –
recall the best years of Social Distortion and/or X, muscular rock n’ roll
with plenty of country leanings and twang. Vocalist Matt Armor shines
throughout this disc, crooning the blues and belting out power rock like
he was born with a pair of horns and a pitchfork. On “A Date With Ivy,”
the band’s ode to the Cramp’s hot and nasty female axe-slinger, Armor out
Lux’s Lux Interior with some deep, bassy howling that puts all other
rock-a-billy frontmen to shame. Guitarist Brian Lakey also shines on this
number (as well as “Another Time and Place” and, heck, just about every
other cut on this sweet baby), as he mixes typical blues-based
rock-a-billy histrionics with Angus Young style hard rock pyrotechnics.
The result is a super-charged six-string attack that starts at the blues
and finishes somewhere around ‘70s arena rock. The rhythm section of
drummer Chris Story and stand-up bassist Dave Kruger pushes all this along
with massive power and authority, giving every tune a runaway freight
train kinda vibe. This stuff may be a bit bluesy sounding, but you sure
can bang yer heard to it, too!!!!
Yup, fightin’, fuckin’ and drinkin’. They are all discussed here in
great detail. “El Dorado” is a tale of a road trip gone haywire that
results in all of the above sins. “Runaway Truck Ramp Love” is a sleazy
number that hails the joys of roadside romance and truck stop amour.
“Hellbilly ‘58” cruises along with a sexy beat that’s sure to get the
ladies asses a-shakin’, while “They Get Bad Fast” is one for the boys to
smash some skulls to. So it’s all here, folks, everything you could want
out of a rock n’ roll record and then some and certainly the best thing to
come out of Santa Barbara since… well… EVER!!! Nerf Herder and Ugly Kid
Joe must be rolling in their graves… oh yeah, I forgot, they’re not
actually dead yet… whatever…
* * * *
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Haley Mas Chingon |
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