THE LIONS RAMPANT
It’s Fun to do Bad Things (2010)
It’s been far too long between Lions Rampant albums. It’s good to know that a band out there still gives a damn about having a good time, getting fucked up and playing great rock and roll music sans pretension and corniness. The Burlington, Kentucky band fires on all cylinders, doing what the music world really needs - stimulation and liveliness, music that makes you feel alive, like a kid downing a handful of sodas the first time. Their album It’s Fun to do Bad Things is a non-stop party, meant to be played loud as a dirty concoction of neo-soul crashing head on with brazen old school rock music when guitars were plugged in and played as is. It’s a rush - a head shaking, hip quaking explosion laced with delicious grooves that drags feet to the dance floor.
It’s Fun to do Bad Things (2010)
It’s been far too long between Lions Rampant albums. It’s good to know that a band out there still gives a damn about having a good time, getting fucked up and playing great rock and roll music sans pretension and corniness. The Burlington, Kentucky band fires on all cylinders, doing what the music world really needs - stimulation and liveliness, music that makes you feel alive, like a kid downing a handful of sodas the first time. Their album It’s Fun to do Bad Things is a non-stop party, meant to be played loud as a dirty concoction of neo-soul crashing head on with brazen old school rock music when guitars were plugged in and played as is. It’s a rush - a head shaking, hip quaking explosion laced with delicious grooves that drags feet to the dance floor.
Judging by the intensity of It’s Fun to do Bad Things their self-propelled gnarly party never stopped between 2006’s Play Rock n Roll and 2007’s Freedom. It’s Fun sounds authentic, as if recorded at a house party with the partygoers and noise removed. The recording sounds bare but comes off monstrous, like an old record found in your parents stash. Its simplicity, its knock-down-drag-out bare knuckled delivery, is akin to the rawness employed on recent albums by The Love Language or The Diamond Center. It’s Fun sounds recorded with guns to the band’s heads - it’s fast, soulful and blows mercury out the thermometer. They fuse blues and punk through a sixties metallic filter, its heavy grooves are brash, hypnotic and fun. Think The Isley Brothers by way of The Standells and the J. Geils Band. It’s hard to point to specific tracks as gems because the whole album is fucking great. ‘I’m a Riot’ and “Cocaine Anne’ are choice listens, but there’s not a single bad song on the album. It’s Fun to do Bad Things is one of the best party records in years. Buy it, download it, invite your friends over and play it loud. Warn your neighbors.
Brian Tucker
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