Album Review: Happy Birthday Bitch – The Ruiners

Rock and Roll is an attitude, and the Ruiners are very Rock and Roll.

The new album, called “Happy Birthday Bitch” is a sort of psychobilly/ dirty pop/ blues/ riff rock including vocal howls, screeching guitar solos, and fuzzed out guitar growls. Elements of late 70′s Iggy Pop and the early 90′s sub-pop explosion are found all throughout the album. The lyrics can be summed up by some of the song titles: “Sugar Buzz,” “Messin’ Around,” and “Beer Time.”

The best song on the album is called “Fix That Broken Halo.” Beyond being one the better arranged songs on the album, this song has the best hooks. Rick sings about the decadent life throughout the verse and ends it by saying, “come Sunday morning, you’ll have to fix that broken halo.” Like many of tracks, people are screaming, hooting, and squealing all through it, but they better placed in this song. After listing to it, “you’ll wish you had some duct tape.” But I won’t say what for. Use your imagination.

The album itself just can’t be called great music, but one of the things I like about it is that it doesn’t try for that. It punches you in the face when subtlety would’ve been the perfect delivery. Many of the songs rely on standard blues and rock chord progressions and are simple and often predictably mapped out. The tone of Rick Ruiner’s voice pushes to almost cartoonish levels. However, there is a certain charm to all of this, and after listening to this album, I can say that if the Ruiners ever invited me to party with them, there would be no way I could say no (Nina Friday! gush, gush, swoon, swoon). The whole album nails exactly what The Ruiner’s image is all about. Namely, screaming until your throat bleeds, keeping the buzz going, falling for a dangerous and sexy girl, and DRINKING BEER! WAAAOOOO!!!

So, turn it up, turn off your thoughts, jump around, and set your couch on fire! BEER! WAAOOO!!!

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order the album from PRAVDA RECORDS or mp3′s here: