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Ten Benson Benson Burner |
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It’s likely that folks who don’t like their
rock delivered with blackened tongue in cheek might not dig Ten Benson
(like the hairy rock beast at the Ozzfest press conference last
month who bellowed “Not funny, man!” to the journo who asked Sharon
why the Darkness wasn’t on this year’s lineup), and I can’t fault em for that. Like their U.K. flash metal counterparts the Darkness, Ten Benson is poking a bit of fun at the rawk, though it’s the sludgier Southern-bred variety that’s between frontman Chris Teckkam’s crosshairs. His smoked-out drawl, usually fuzzed |
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through a variety of effects, suggests such
tattooed Johnny Reb
types as Nashville Pussy, Little Caesar or Sleazegrinder
faves Roadsaw, and the songs focus on such stock lowbrow tourbus preoccupations as Satanic forces, being dead-dick broke, and teenage tits (literally so, as on the third track, “Tits”). Music-wise, it’s “Thunderstruck”-era AC/DC, right down to the Chris Slade metronome drumming, and if that gets you hot, you’ll probably dig Benson Burner. Lyrically, Teckkam and crew seem to be kicking up a dust cloud at hard rock’s more meatheaded tendencies while indulging in some peculiar obsessions—the title of “Robot Tourist” pretty much sums up the song while allowing the band to play around with a phase shifter, and “Black Christmas” envisions a hellish Yuletide on par with Spinal Tap’s “Christmas with the Devil”. The just-foolin’ approach to the songs gets a little tired after a while, but if you cotton to Ten Benson’s brand of well-meaning goofing, you can just switch your brain off and coast on the ’86 era guitar snarl. The question is: are Ten Benson gonna get the same kind of ejaculatory praise that’s been heaped on their pals the Darkness? I dunno—they’re a little too weird and wrapped up in their pretend-redneck world to end up on most rock critics’ mash note lists. And given their goofball tendencies, it’s likely that they’ll divide metal and hard rock fans in the same manner as the Darkness. I get the feeling that Ten Benson probably doesn’t give a flying fuck at a rolling doughnut about these things; if you’re in that camp too, you might wanna give this a listen. —Paul Gaita ___________________________________________________________________________ |
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