The Erotics
Boulevard of Choking Screams
Trash Pit Records
The Crank County Daredevils had a song on their second album, Livin’ in the Red, called “Back To Piss You Off,” a sentiment I can’t help but think about every time I hear a new Erotics album. It seems that every Erotics release aims to out-shock the one that came before it, to rile up anyone who dares take it on. From “Only Girl For Me” (a song about how dating Helen Keller would be great because she can’t see or speak) to “Date Rape (By Candlelight)” (addressing the issues rape victims face when seeking justice) to “Wrapped Around Your Neck” (the pleasure that would come from strangling an entitled, high maintenance girl), and many, many others, the Albany, New York band prides itself on putting the sleaze in sleaze rock, and perhaps they’ve finally tipped the scales on their new five-song EP, Boulevard of Choking Screams, thanks to the song “Wheelchair Fantasies of the Dumb and Retarded,” in which they make references to the short bus, rejects, and wanking off to nuns. If that makes Erotics main man Mike Trash all the more trashier, every bit the eye-lined monster that lurks in the shadows of your sickest fantasies, then all the better for him, because judging the content of his character also means taking into account the disgustingly catchy riffs that pour from his fingertips, which bite and sting as much as his words. Sure, this band might be a walking parental advisory sticker, but you’re not listening to it with your mom, and besides, it’s damn near impossible to avoid the arena-infused blues of “Hell is Where My Heart Is” or the sweet strychnine of “Another Girl Gone,” so enjoy the bad fun. Societal serial killers make strange bedfellows.
Listen to “Hell Is Where My Heart Is” from Boulevard of Choking Screams!
Posted by Jeff on Mar 8 2012 in Reviews Tags: Albany, Another Girl Gone, arena, Back To Piss You Off, bite, blues, Boulevard of Choking Screams, catchy, Crank County Daredevils, Date Rape (By Candlelight), disgusting, eye-lined, fantasy, Helen Keller, Hell is Where My Heart Is, Livin' in the Red, Mike Trash, monster, New York, Only Girl For Me, riffs, Rock, serial killer, shadows, shock, sick, sleaze, sting, strange, strychnine, sweet, The Erotics, Trash Pit Records, Wheelchair Fantasies of the Dumb and Retarded, Wrapped Around Your Neck
