THE UGLY BEATS
Bring On The Beats (Get Hip)
Reviewed by DJ Johnson

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If you slowed The Ramones' "Beat On The Brat" down to slightly faster than half speed, you'd have something that sounded very much like The Ugly Beats' "I'm The One." Since that's the opening track, you might be expecting an albumful of more of the same, but they've got more going on elsewhere. Among the more on-the-sleeve influences to be heard on Bring On The Beats are The Seeds and ? and the Mysterions, but they do manage to blend things pretty well on several of these tracks to create a sound that's mostly theirs and is always pretty hot at the very least. They employ the balanced attack of two guitars, one clean and chimey, one distorted and gritty, with swirling organ chords flying between. They've got a pretty good thing worked out here, but I wish they'd use their harmony vocals a bit more than they do. It's something they do pretty well, but they use it much too sparingly. One of the best songs avoids the issue altogether by going instro. "Get Up" isn't fancy, it doesn't go into surf territory, and it isn't a showcase for any soloist. It's just pure garage power, and it rocks. All in all, a nice addition to the garage scene and a solid debut by this Austin quintet.

© 2005 - DJ Johnson