If I were to review Psychostick, it only makes sense that I should review their counterpart, the more famous band, the mighty Bloodhound Gang.
Bloodhound Gang was formed out of the ashes of a synth-pop project called Bang Chamber 8 started by members Jimmy Pop and Daddy Long Legs. Bang Chamber 8, admittedly, pretty much sucked because they tried too hard to be Depeche Mode.
I don't have an image of the band's line-up at this time, because I actually doubt any exist, but here, have a small image of Jimmy Pop and Daddy Long Legs:
The band at this time was made up of Jimmy Pop on vocals, Daddy Long Legs on vocals and keyboard, Skip O' Pot2Mus on drums and backing vocals, M.S.G. on turntables and backing vocals, and Lüpüs Thünder on guitar and backing vocals.Where as Psychostick are more metal, Bloodhound Gang's style can be described as hip-hop mixed with pop-punk, and later having influence from euro-pop and dance music.
Jimmy Pop and Daddy Long Legs usually just exchange rapped vocals about stupid and funny stuff rather than serious things. Jimmy is quite the clever guy, though, saying lines like "I ain't got no soul, but I got more than Don Henley, I'm whiter than Casper, but I'm not that friendly." Where as Daddy typically just says stuff about how he's better than you, will have sex with your girlfriend, etc, so it's easy to see who's the better writer of the two. They both do well on vocals though, although it's pretty easy to see that Jimmy Pop is easily better.
The album has some good songs like One Way and Mama Say, but it has some real turds like their cover of Kids In America featuring Rob Vitale on vocals. Not even some of Jimmy Pop's cleverness can save some of these songs. It's not just the production on some of them, which honestly sounds very under-produced, but another problem that plagues some of their other albums on selected songs: Repetitiveness. They repeat the chorus way too much, to the point where you think "Okay, it's going to change now" but they repeat it two more times.
Also of negative note, while Daddy Long Legs is good occasionally, it's not even my opinion as much as it is fact that Jimmy Pop is simply better than him in every way, from vocals, to lyrics, to energy. There's a few points during the album you'll wish Jimmy would just smack Daddy upside the head and steal the microphone from him.
The album also falls a bit during the pop-punk parts. They just weren't good at it on this album. They weren't experienced.
While this does have some good songs worth checking out, if you're already a fan, this has some crappy songs on it too. If you don't like BHG and you hear this, you will think they're terrible. This isn't the right place to start with them.
5/10
Strange thing is, I can't find any of the good tracks off of this album on YouTube. Go figure.
Recommended Track(s): One Way
