I have purchased three new albums this year so far. Which is kind of a lot, I guess. I don’t really buy a ton of music anymore. And I don’t pirate any music anymore. So what are our three albums of honour? We have:
- Story of the Year – Wolves
- Tonight Alive – Underworld
- Sons of Butcher – Cover Stains
So in January, I got the new albums from two of my favourite bands of all time, but those aren’t the ones that I feel the urge to type words about. No, today, for the first time in many, many years, I want to type some words about Sons of Butcher.
To catch you up: Sons of Butcher was a 2005 Canadian animated show that lasted for two seasons, and since the main characters were in a band, they also released two studio albums. I don’t know if either show or music were successful, as the market for comedic rock is very limited, but it took me a while to warm up to both. Once I did, though, I was all in. Bought both seasons on DVD and both albums. Listened to them all the time. They’re one of the few bands that I could not get the ex-wife into. And honestly, I don’t blame her. This is stuff for a very specific niche.
Moving closer to the present, I Googled Sons of Butcher randomly the other week, and through a series of clicks I discovered that they have a Bandcamp page and way more than two albums. While my instinct was to immediately download them all, I opted instead to pledge $5 for their live cover album. The track list was a strong list of classic rocks songs that I love with a number of SOB originals. Seemed like a good idea.
Results? Mixed. Mostly because it is a live album and lacks a certain polish. Normally that’s fine. I actually like the rawness of a good live album. But none of these guys are particularly good singers, which poses a problem when you don’t have any means to sand up the rough edges. Also, since there’s presumably no mixing going on, all the guitar solos are muted and only come out of the right side, which is not optimal. I mean, the solos are really good. It’s a darn shame they don’t get to shine a little more.
Aside from those gripes, I like the album. It’s not a straight cover album by any means. Like I noted before, there are a number of Sons of Butcher songs in there, and a number of the covers are tweaked a bit, usually for the sake of making them “funnier.” I really love “Tasty Meats (Done Dirt Cheap)” but the changes to “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” aren’t especially hilarious, just excessively dirty. Thankfully that song gets cut off a little early.
That actually reminds me of something else weird; there are clearly supposed to be skits in between some of the songs, but they’ve all been excised. Why? I couldn’t even fathom a guess, but the cuts are poor and it’s more than a little distressing. A couple songs cut out very abruptly, and there are a number of instances where tracks cut out just as soon as the band starts talking. I can see how this may have been necessary for a physical album release, but when you’re using a digital marketplace, why not just keep it all in. Maybe it’s a simple as none of it was funny.
Like so many things that I like, I feel as though I’d never recommend this to anyone. It’s just for such a specific crowd, and I am very sure that nobody I know has the required sense of humour, or a taste for very unrefined live music. But that’s why I have this blog! So I have “someone” to “talk to” about all the weird things I like and not get scoffed at like I’m some kind of idiot.