Album Review: "Casino Drone" by Mike Adams At His Honest Weight

Casino Drone

There is a very serious problem going on in my household right now. We have been trying to remedy this for years now and there is no end in sight.

My five year old daughter cannot be convinced that there are other foods in the world besides the five she's willing to eat.

Fried rice?

Grilled chicken?

Hambrugers?

These have all been suggested to her by me. She's not having any of it. Mashed potatoes and corn on the cob are big hits at least. After years of cooking two dinners for her, I have nearly reached the end of the line on this business and don't even get me started on ketchup. With a whole world of condiment choices at her disposal...

But ya know what? When she's 15 I'm going to remind her that she hated nachos when she was a kid!

Mike Adams At His Honest Weight

My favorite band is Kiss and there's a very serious complaint that's been leveled at them by me over the years:

There sound has never changed.

Variety is the spice of life, my friends and some bands don't get that.

It's more than just here's our rockin' track, our sensitive ballad, our overarching epic, and our self indulgent instrumental.

It's not even like here's our  jazz tune, our rock tune, our blues serenade, and our folk medley. So what else is there for a band to do?

The music has to sound different sometimes. Mike Adams At His Honest Weight have taken this criticism I've leveled at Kiss to heart, though it would be hard to believe that they've heard me say it.

Their album is replete with songs that sound nothing like each other. This is not the greatest achievement on this record though. It's as if an idea struck the guitarist....

Hey man, I've got this new tremolo guitar pedal. We should use this in a song!

Everybody's been there right? But how many other times have you heard the rest of the band incorporating this sound simultaneously? For me, it's round about never. So when the synthy intro starts to warble it sounds cool and left of center and then in swoops the warbled guitar, but why stop there when you're only at the top!

Because you could just go totally over it by having the vocals warble along with the whole rest of everything.

The only misstep taken on this fine album is the title. There's nothing droning about this record at all. It's one of the most vibrant things I've heard in 2016. Easily ready for my ten best list...should I choose to write one.

Release: 5/20/16
Genre: Indie
Label: Joyful Noise
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