This thing has been out forever. I remember hearing some of these tracks in 2003, courtesy of some of my midwestern music-collecting brethren. "Full Time" is a dandy celebration of MC5 and GRAND FUNK worship, quite suitable for background music while setting off indoor fireworks. The tracks on the disc blow past quickly like the advertisement on the side of a bus, leaving you scratching your head and going in for second and third glances.

In a lot of ways it's just like the disc is one long song, and that's the way you'll want to digest it. I enjoyed the lead guitar tones, like the break in "Stand Still Blues" and the intro to "Crash Bam Boom", High energy, high protein, pure chewing satisfaction etc. Same thing with "Ramblin' Rose"...er, I mean "Ghetto Rose". Tight basslines and 70s big block Gibson crunch that just saws through your reserve and rolls your windows down automatically. Tracks like "Lose It" or "Stand Still Blues" start off sounding like something from the Blues Brothers movie. I'm sure that puts it over the top for you, once and for all.

The DVD "High Performance" is the big bonus draw of this reissue. I don't normally review DVDs because I tend to have a very short attention span for them. This was no exception: I fell asleep. Admittedly, I didn't really 'get' the zaniness of the mock reality show shtick the first time I reviewed it (the band had a ball discussing this). So I went back and watched it again. It is very cute and all, but I'm still puzzled as to why these guys haven't released anything else at this point. Maybe it was easier to make this zany DVD, but why not include a disc of audio material instead? How about an 'odds 'n sods' sort of thing? Maybe they lost a key member of the band. Maybe Jimmy quit and Jody got married, who knows? At this point, it's been four or five years since the original release of 'Full Time', and they're still giving away copies on their website. Soil erosion moves faster than that. At any rate, RPG isn't the most Google-friendly band name, so click the link below for more info.

- Marchman

OFFICIAL SITE: www.rpgva.com

RELATED ITEMS: No related articles at this time.