Tight Bro's From Way Back When
Lend You a Hand
[Kill Rock Stars; 2002]
Rating: 7.9
The first time I ever saw the Tight Bro's play, I was having one of the
shittiest days of my adult life. I entered the club audibly groaning.
But by the time super-speedy, explosive, cock-rock lunacy took the stage,
I was actually smiling, for crying out loud, to say nothing of
feeling the need to raise the red hand of rock and holler like a
demolition obsessed, mullet-sportin' tweaker at a monster truck show.
As one of the more unique names on the Kill Rock Stars roster, the
Tight Bro's From Way Back When have, since 1997, become one of the
preeminent Friday night party-rock bands for otherwise uptight indie
kids looking to get plowed, go nuts, practice air guitar, and unleash
their inner hesher without looking over their shoulder to see who's
watching. Listening to the Tight Bro's is hardly an intellectual
activity-- though, don't get me wrong, they know what they're doing.
The Tight Bro's are vocalist/screamer Jared Warren (formerly of
Karp), guitarists John "Quitty" Quittner and Dave Harvey (of Behead
the Prophet), bassist Sean Kelly (of Gene Defcon), and a fairly
impressive list of ex-drummers for a band that's only been around for
five years. A quick gander at the Lend You a Hand cover art,
featuring the smiling head of Charlemagne, some lightening bolts, and
the multicolored faces of the band members would seem to verify that
the Tight Bro's are not inclined to take themselves too seriously.
Lend You a Hand, the band's sophomore full-length, is 37
minutes of tightly packed, over-the-top rock action that unabashedly
channels AC/DC by way of the Stooges, without diluting the formula
with masturbatory solos or pretentious harmonic noodling. Cartoon
liner notes urge listeners to sing along-- "If you're having a hard
time figuring out which lyrics to sing along with, let the Tight Bro's
lead the way... or make up your own, clap hands, etc." If you're
even remotely inclined toward guitar rock, it won't be hard to do as
instructed-- especially when the opportunity presents itself in the
first song to howl, "You're vicious, you're nasty," along with Warren
(don't try this at the office).
The first track, "Make It A Habit," builds out of a din of feedback
and a baying coyote into a driving rhythm and the style of hyperkinetic
guitar licks your fourteen-year-old cousin with the subscription to
Guitar Player wishes he could play. It's hard to stay still
while listening to this song. This is followed up by "Bless Me," with
its slightly raunchier, roadhouse feel-- truer, perhaps, to its AC/DC
influence. Much of the album vacillates between roar and raunch,
occasionally meshing them into the same song, one example being the
metal swing of "Gimme the Key."
There's little extra racket on this album. I could have probably done
without the Blues Explosion/Black Sabbath hybrid "My Bad Luck," which
takes too long to hit its groove, but this is a minor complaint. The
energy rarely flags on Lend You a Hand-- no small feat for an
album that comes out of the gate at full-throttle roar. Even the covers--
Joe Tex's "Show Me" and the Animals' "Inside Looking Out"-- come off
seamlessly. The latter even reveals that Jared Warren has a
better-than-average blues voice.
The current rock revival has spawned a number of vault-mining bands
with old-fashioned tastes. The Tight Bro's are not the first to
resurrect this genre (nor, from the looks of things, will they be the
last), but there's a nice immediacy to their stuff. It feels good to
listen to this right now, and imagine hiring them to play your most
debauched backyard barbeque, without having to worry about the real
effects of incipient madness at the first song. Good stuff.
-Alison Fields, May 14th, 2002