Rickshaw Billie's Burger Patrol
Big Dumb Riffs
**and1/2 out of *****
The metal outfit from Austin, TX, Rickshaw Billie's Burger Patrol, deliver what is advertised on their newest, quick running LP, Big Dumb Riffs.
The power trio of Leo Lydon’s (8-string guitar) Aaron Metzdorf’s (bass) and Sean St. Germain’s (drums) never wants to think too hard, or stick around too long. In the marketing for the album Metzdorf is quoted as saying:
“We just wanted ‘the part’: The opening of Pantera’s ‘Primal Concrete Sledge’, the breakdown in Primus' ‘Pudding Time’ — the shit that makes you move and lose your mind. Just that part the whole time.”
The trio take those parts and deliver short songs out of usually two chords and mostly deliver on that creative idea. The two acts he mentions have direct tributes from the band as "Papa Pop It" sounds like a Primus love letter, minus the funk, while "Whip It Around" has a very Cowboy's From Hell feel to the groove metal (brief) madness.
That is the key with Big Dumb Riffs, if you don't like a tune, don't worry, they are brief (clocking in usually under two minutes) and a different one in probably a different style will be up next.
Opener "Clowntown" is power poppy before a chanting punk/metal ending over the title phrase while "Peanut Butter Snack Sticks" ramps up the speaker busting distortion and heavy metal headbanging. Just by seeing the titles of the tracks you know the band doesn't take things too seriously as the juvenile humor of "1-800-EAT-SHIT" makes painfully clear over and over again.
Vocally that track is a mix of Offspring snotty and Limp Bizkit chanting smugness. That feeling also returns when the band digs into Nu Metal influences in the middle of the album with the run of "Body Bag", "Brat", and "El Sapo". All of these efforts are one note jokes that feel straight out of Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water outtake bin.
Things improve with the straight ahead punk blasting of "Bastard Initiated" and "Blue Collar Man" which shifts to throat wrenching screaming lyrics. The album ends on an interesting note as the band shifts to a Weezer meets Joy Division sound with horror movie lyrics buried in the fuzz as "In A Jar" wraps up the album with the longest, most nuanced track.
However, nuance is clearly not what Rickshaw Billie's Burger Patrol is going for on Big Dumb Riffs, the band uses truth in advertising via the title of the record to deliver their party metal ways.
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