Kathleen Turner Overdrive – Marauders! Wolves! Scavengers! Party!

Boy, somebody woke up and put on their sassypants, didn’t they? Between the band name, song titles like “Ex-Vegas Or Pussy Thieves” and “Sweatin To The Gallows” and their crazed, fractured, off-kilter dirges, KTO’s definitely poised on that ugly precipice of being just a little too cutesy for their own good.

The music’s frantic, disjointed and all over the map; some serious fisticuffs being dealt out ala Drowningman, Jonbenet or a speedier Curl Up And Die. Admittedly, it’s a fairly intense listen and they’re certainly adept at this particular genre, but the record’s biggest downfall is that even at only 6 songs it’s difficult to tell each tune apart – it all just blends into one long bit of sonic punishment.

While stuff like this doesn’t really hold my attention for long – it’s probably a good thing that this is an EP – they’ve got a few things working for ‘em. The lyrics are dark, caustic and threaded with hopelessness – mostly thinly-veiled testaments to drinking, fucking and courting disaster, which are generally pretty good topics to run with when you deal with em intelligently, which KTO does. The album art by the eminentHorsebites doesn’t hurt either.

It’s a decent record for people that’re into this type of stuff, mired only by the fact that, well, like I said, all the songs sound the same in the sense that they come across as merely a collection of riffs or sections strung together. I don’t think bands necessarily need a pop format of verse-chorus-verse-chorus to get their point across, but I personally would have appreciated something with a bit structure or cohesiveness. Great for what it is but also nothing that particularly leaps out and grabs the lapels.