The title of this record could not hit me closer to home. Those predators of the sea managed to maul two beachgoers in the last week here in the sassy sunshine state. This could be a FALL tribute band with slight hints of CAPTAIN BEEFHEART and PERE UBU. Their bio states, “this is for fans of WALL OF VOODOO, THE FALL, and DAVIE ALLEN & THE ARROWS” (I am sorta assuming this is Dave Allen of GANG OF FOUR). As a major WALL OF VOODOO fan forever, I just don’t hear anything here that remotely makes me think of Mark Moreland’s spaghetti western melodies, Chas T. Grey’s keys or Stan Ridgeway’s wordsmith (nor Andy Prieboy’s). The vocals are not even close. In fact, they are quite annoying! It’s just the Mark E. Smith non-singing made more grating with slightly higher notation, extra bratty twang and some distortion thrown on top. The lyrics offer no WoV-like stories and instead are useless atypical nonsensical indie rock fare. It’s kind of a shame because the guitar/bass/drum interplay is quite pleasing to the ear even if it is rather derivative of its influences (the bass sound is quite nice fellas, really). None of these instruments/vocals change in tone one iota throughout the proceedings. The EP length of this disc is rather well justified. A full-lengther from these geeks would be friggin’ Chinese water torture!

- Herring

OFFICIAL SITE: myspace.com/fmbats

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