Welcome to AmpedReviews.net
We have been around since 2006 and bring you the best of CD and Live reviews aswell as Interviews with bands, features and live photography! If you're interested in appearing on or writing for the website please get in contact
Tracklisting
1. Shut Me Up
2. Stupid MF
3. Straight To Video
4. What Do They Know
5. 2 Hookers And An Eightball
6. Prom
7. Bullshit
8. Tom Sawyer
9. 1989
10. You'll Rebel To Anything (As Long As It's Not Challenging)
11. Mic Commander [bonus track]
12. La Di Da Di [bonus track]
13. Make Me Cum [demo/previously unreleased/bonus track]
14. Wack [live from Webster Hall, NYC Jul 2005/previously unreleased/bonus track]
Originally released nearly three years ago in America, Mindless Self Indulgence’s ‘You’ll Rebel To Anything (As Long as it’s Not Challenging)’ finally gets a UK release with four bonus tracks. This album, like all of MSI’s releases, is difficult to categorise, sometimes sounding like Outkast (‘What Do They Know’) sometimes like Marilyn Manson (‘Straight To Video’) and sometimes like System of a Down (the vocals of ‘Tom Sawyer’) but mostly sounding like nothing you’ve ever heard before. Album-opener ‘Shut Me Up’ is their most accessible song, a slick mish-mash of distorted guitars, an electro chorus, piercing falsetto vocals and the sound of someone being slapped repeatedly around the face. It all sounds so good that you have to wonder: why has nobody tried this before?
Synth-and-sound-effect-heaped ‘Prom’ uses the sound of a vinyl skipping to provide instant character in much the same way as the slap effects of ‘Shut Me Up.’ Beyond that, ‘Prom’ is all sudden changes of pitch as vocalist Jimmy Urine flips from deep-throated bark to piercing falsetto, finished off with an insanely catchy guitar-line. ‘What Do They Know’ features a looped electronica backbeat which blends in so well that you don’t notice the layers of synths unless you really concentrate. It’s here that you start to realise just how much care MSI put into their music, despite the implied disregard as Urine wildly over-accentuates the rhyme at the end of each line in typical MSI dumb humour. MSI may try and present themselves as not being too hung up about music, but the complexity of songs such as this suggests otherwise. But that’s hardly surprising: no-one makes anything this bizarrely brilliant without putting the effort in.
It’s clear just from these three songs that MSI are mad, but the lyrics of many of their other songs are even more unhinged and crammed with twisted humour. ‘Stupid MF’s lyrics are almost unintelligible but, once you’ve decoded them, you’ll stick this song on repeat just for entertainment value. Extra track ‘Mic Commander’ was originally the bonus track on the American ‘clean’ version of the album and contains strings of backmasked obscenities, which pretty much tells you all you need to know about MSI’s sense of humour.
MSI calm down and put on a straight face for trance-tinged second single ‘Straight to Video’ which is a blend of rock and electronica vaguely reminiscent of Marilyn Manson’s ‘Tainted Love.’ This song is built around an abrasive electronic loop that ensures this song gets stuck in your head to such an extent that listening to it on repeat feels like brainwashing. In contrast, ‘2 Hookers and an Eight Ball’ is MSI’s maddest moment. Crammed with synths and featuring a rap that sounds nothing short of possessed, ’2 Hookers and an Eight Ball’ somehow still manages to sound slick and cool rather than silly.
‘Bullshit’ stands out from the rest of the album in that the music takes a backseat to some seriously satirical lyrics. These take a few listens to fully appreciate, and you have to wonder whether it’s wise to rely on lyrical content when those lyrics are hurtling past the listener at warp speed. However, after the electronic-tinged silliness of much of this album,‘Bullshit’ provides something a little harder to crack, and perhaps this is necessary to keep the listener coming back for more. The ending of ‘Bullshit’ is simply brilliant though, as the stop-start rhythms speed up and Urine’s falsetto provides a counterpoint to the synths, culminating in a storm of skittering guitars, drums, and Atari-esque sound effects that then abruptly cuts off in MSI’s signature kooky style. Another album highlight comes with an unrecognisable cover of Rush’s ‘Tom Sawyer’ which is a slick, Atari-punctuated aural acid trip of a song. The album ends with a live recording of older song ‘Wack’ which seems calculated to pre-empt any claims that MSI are a studio band, incapable of reproducing their sound live. This track proves that not only are MSI capable of producing something mind-boggling, exhilarating and quite unlike anything else out there, but they are capable of producing it live.
Arguably, MSI are not an easy band to get into. Like fellow genre-benders System of a Down and Biffy Clyro, they posses an angular originality that’s a bit of a hurdle for the listener to overcome, but like both of these bands, they pay that initial effort back with ease. ‘You’ll Rebel to Anything….’ is prog-rock, but not as you know it, a mixture of every genre, with lashings of twisted humour and disregard for taste (title-track ‘You’ll Rebel to Anything…’ pokes fun at suicide) and it’s all horribly addictive. Once MSI become your new favourite band, it’s unlikely anyone will replace them, simply because there’s no-one out there who sounds quite like them.
Interview with Poets of the Fall
We spoke to Poets of the Fall about their new record label and the Finnish music industry. READ THE FULL INTERVIEW
Interview with Sean Flowerdew from Pama International
We spoke to Sean Flowerdew from Pama International about the last ten years of the band. READ THE FULL INTERVIEW
Interview with Mika Tauriainen from Entwine
We spoke to Mika Tauriainen from Entwine about the future of music industry. READ THE FULL INTERVIEW
Interview with The Winyls
We spoke to James and HC of the Winyls, the Finnish band that is said to combine exciting tunes, live mayhem, blood, sweat and tears into their music. READ THE FULL INTERVIEW
Interview with Larry Love of Negative
We recently spoke to Larry Love of Finnish rock band Negative, about his inspirations, their musical style and comparisons to classic rock bands. READ THE FULL INTERVIEW
Interview with MiMi Soya
We recently spoke to Brighton based pop rock outfit, MiMi Soya about their brand new EP 'I Can't Stand Pop Bands,' their recent success and what is still yet to come from the band. READ THE FULL INTERVIEW
Behinds the scenes with My Darkest Days
We recently went behind the scenes with My Darkest Days on their July 2010 tour, opening for Sick Puppies alongside It's Alive and Janus.
Mark Goodwin of Sick Puppies
We recently spoke to Mark Goodwin of Sick Puppies about Rock Prophecies, who he would like to share a stage with and what's new about their recent tour.
It's Alive
We recently spoke to It's Alive about their recent tour in support of Sick Puppies and shooting the video for their single 'Pieces.'
Tommi Thunder from Suicide Love Boat
We spoke to Tommi Thunder of Suicide Love Boat about the band’s scam tour to Germany, stolen guitars, cut fingers, lost brothers, playing drunk and many others. READ THE FULL INTERVIEW
Jonas Karsten from Vanity Beach
We talked to Jonas Karsten of Vanity Beach about their long-awaited second album ‘A Life of Vice’, a new line-up and producer and many other curious sidelights. READ THE FULL INTERVIEW
Dead Confederate
We spoke to Dead Confederate during the last day of SXSW about what they've been up to and their new album READ THE FULL INTERVIEW
Burn The Fleet
We spoke to this Southampton based group about their local music scene and how they are breaking out from it. READ THE FULL INTERVIEW
Silent Disguise
We spoke to metal band Silent Disguise about their journey to where they are today and what is on the horizon. READ THE FULL INTERVIEW
Phillip Edwards from Boys With X-Ray Eyes
We spoke to drummer Phillip Edwards about the bands rise since their debut. READ THE FULL INTERVIEW
Gustav Wood from Young Guns
We talk to the young front man about the Kerrang! Relentless tour and what it feels like to be an unsigned band that is currently making huge waves in the rock music industry. READ THE FULL INTERVIEW
Lost Prophets
We talk to Lost Prophets about their new album 'The Betrayed' and their current tour of the UK READ THE FULL INTERVIEW
Funeral For A Friend
We talked to Funeral For A Friend members Darran and Gavin about their new 'Greatest Hits' album and how Gavin felt about joining the band. READ THE FULL INTERVIEW
Angel Ibarra from Aiden
Back in June we talked to Aiden guitarist Angel Ibarra about the new record and the recent troubles that the band have faced. READ THE FULL INTERVIEW
