TEN FOOT POLE

Alright,.. time to get down and review a spooky CD for our extra-creepy Halloween issue. Hmmm. What the-- wait a minute! Vinnie, you idiot! This isn’t the new Whitesnake album! It’s Ten Foot Pole’s new jammy-jam, Bad Mother Trucker (Victory Records)! Oh well, I guess I’ll review this instead. Ah,.. here comes the poppy punk rock. The punchy beats, the rollicking guitar riffs, the snot-nosed wail-- all the essentials are here. Paying attention to the lyrics, I’m starting to notice the messages beneath the sound. There’s a lot of catchy storytelling in each track. “Nova Scotia” speeds ahead, frantically winding the tale of a man who can’t get a lost love out of his head. Meanwhile, “Giving Gravity A Hand” is a “fuck all” disco call for living life to the fullest, despite the Surgeon General and your grandmother’s words of caution. Adding up to a dozen tracks, Bad Mother Trucker takes you around the twenty-something sociological bend. One minute you’ll be contemplating the lasting impressions you’ve made on those around you, and the next, you’ll be damning the all-American slouch who complains but doesn’t take action. With all that being said, this album isn’t really anything that hasn’t been done before. Still, it’s catchy enough for me to not launch it from the window of a moving train. It’s not gonna blow the rear out of your knickers, but it’ll definitely make you do that head bobbing thing we all do when we hear the Tommy gun tempo of an oh-so-punk rock tune. For more, check out tenfootpole.com.