by Nathan Cardiff

All Blood growl and howl their way through their awesome album The Kids Have No Taste. The quartet push guitars and vocal chords to their limit (try “Every Other Brain Cell’s Dead” on for size) on the fifteen power packed tracks. “Cuz knowledge is power/And power is might/And might makes right/And might makes right, right?” they ask on “A Western Man.” The song is a staccato explosion ripping the record wide open. We fall into the fuzzy abyss and don’t stop till we are left a shredded, bloody mess; skin peeled off and bones crushed from the sonic boom. The drums endure the brutal onslaught, Zach Campbell slamming them ruthlessly. The guitars grind and surge on “Hippie Drugs” (“She gave me hippie drugs/But that’s not what I want!”) and leave a surfy vibe in their wake. I agree with Mitch Jones when he says All Blood channels “the tube driven riffs and bass grooves of ’66 combined with the raw energy of ’77.”

“Hippie Drugs” leads me to believe that All Blood has time traveled from some alternate dimension where they were a beach band. Look no further than “The Party Never Ends” and its warped madness. I can picture it now; teenage punks and hippies dancing on the beach while the band plays on a boardwalk with a ferris wheel on fire behind them. What else can we hear at this demented carnival? Check out the haunted funhouse sounds of “Now I Am The Devil,” “Opt Out,” and “Another Teen Beat.” The keyboard/organ really give these tunes a signature sound. Then, out of fucking nowhere, comes the sweet pop of “Climbing.” This track boggles my mind. The soft harmonies, the mellow time signature. This may be All Blood’s most insane track on The Kids Have No Taste, because it’s wedged between furious rockers. But I don’t put “Climbing” out of All Blood’s wheelhouse (think of their lovely “She’s In The Air”). “Climbing” is the gasp of air we get before screaming all the way down the rest of the plunge. The Kids Have No Taste will knock your senses into a frenzy. Come on down to this spooky waterfront. All Blood will twist your spine away.

Favorite Tracks: “A Western Man,” “Hippie Drugs,” “The Party Never Ends,” & “Climbing”

by Nathan Cardiff

Editor’s note: You can see All Blood this Friday at the Bottleneck as part of Lawrence Field Day Fest.