I thought the debut 7" from Bad American was pretty intense, but it's got nothing on their newly released LP "Pretty/Ugly."
The opener, "Dirty Waters," is a stomping bastard of a song, impossible not to nod along to, with a shouted, repeated refrain and accompanying gang vocals. Sets the tone perfectly.
The LP experiments with speed a little more than the 7", with some extremely fast stuff ("The Jumper," "Acid Washed") leading into the slow and super-heavy "Bad American." And that's the first side.
The second half starts with "Pre-Load," a slow instrumental that opens with some pretty gnarly feedback. I say instrumental, but Ray does scream through most of the track, a beastly howl that finely accompanies the sludgy, distorted guitar work. It's a great lead-in to "Joe Ego," a fast, sarcastic tune that's over and done in under a minute.
The last two, "Blink" and "Dictator" are old-school sounding, fast and very punk. Some noteworthy musicianship going on here. The drums are chaotic, and complement the noisy and somewhat intricate guitar and bass lines.
The members of this band have been in other great PA bands like Carpenter Ant, Panic Attack, and Rancor. Bad American really doesn't sound like any of those bands. Sometimes they remind me of "Nervous Breakdown"-era Black Flag, and sometimes . . . not. Their sound is somewhat hard to pin down, partially because they bounce between extremes, blazingly fast, to suddenly slow, but always heavy and very noisy.
This album and the 7" are both worth checking out, but I'd put the LP higher up on the list. And see them live if you can; great show.
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