Reviewed by Tom Mott / LISTENING POST DISCOVERY
Released: 1981 The Muffs (AKA Money) The Muffs (AKA Rainbow Album) Genre: Chaotic Neutral Rating: 4 out of 5 Highlights: Starmaker (No Lip From) Punks It's Strange The Muffs burst forth like a pinball machine run amok, plugged into your quadraphonic sound system. Are they the evil band from a Sid & Marty Kroft TV Special? No, not evil. Bounty Hunters of rock. Like the altern-a-dude's slow awareness that bowling is more than an ironic posture it's legit fun, my astonished glee took several turns before acknowledging this masterpiece. Is this a kitsch masterpiece? Does pleasure care from whence it springs? Oh, self. I should have known just from the bitchin' hologram album cover. If The Cars were glam rock. If Styx was a pop band. If Utopia wasn't drenched in smug self-awareness. If the 90s Muffs name hadn't obliterated all previous Muffs. You're confused. Tom's putting us on. Shit, he's not even on FB anymore. Troll! Hear me out. Listen to "Shoot Me Rock and Roll" with the mental image that all of the Listening Posters are in a packed club. Aaron hitting every one of those gloriously perfect rototom fills. Brian effortlessly dialing up some chorused guitars. Jim grimacing as he dutifully plays the keyboard parts, but we know he secretly enjoys his solo spotlight in "Wake Up." And then Allen comes out in Bugaloo-inspired attire for "Off the Air," and the deal is sealed. We're all in, for every singalong chorus ("I-I-I-I don't take no lip from punks!") Chris, Thom, and Thom laughing no, no, no, this is terrible. Until they're given the task of art directing the whole affair, track down some lasers, and succumb to the magic. This is what the music on Jimmy Hotz "Beyond the Crystal Sea" should have sounded like. He aspired to laserium pomposity instead of wrangling together a two-bit E.L.O. Electric Mayhem Circus meant for small clubs in Ohio and Boston. Or the Tomorrowland Terrace. It ends with a rock instrumental of The Way We Were. We would have been giddy with excitement around the water cooler on Monday, preening over everyone who had missed the show. +10,000.
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