Sometimes you wanna think about the direction your life is heading – are you where you want to be? Are the people you’ve surrounded yourself with a help or a hindrance to your goals? Is there longevity in your current career, or do you need to make a change? Are you being held back by deep-seated neuroses from your childhood? What will the next logical step be to make you the individual you’re meant to become?

And sometimes, you just want to lie on the couch for the entire weekend, watch dumb movies, eat cold pizza, and pick your nose without fear of reprisal. If that’s your idea of heaven, Boston’s The Coffin Lids have the soundtrack for your downtime. ‘Round Midnight is grimy basement stomp about monsters (“Frankenstein”), sex (“I’m Going To Have My Way (With the 5,6,7,8’s” and a nice and crunchy rip through the Lime Spiders’ “Slave Girl”), booze (“Whiskey Drinkin’ Woman”), and occasionally, combinations of the three (“Tonight You’re Going to Die in My Garage”). Thankfully, it’s completely free of the horror-nerdism that plagues creature feature-minded bands like Nekromantix or the HorrorPops; instead, The Coffin Lids mine the same just-goofing vein as the Mummies and Groovie Ghoulies – they know it’s retarded, but it sure is fun to sing about. Subject matter isn’t the only thing The Coffin Lids share with the Mummies – ‘Round Midnight doesn’t begin to approach the subterranean production value of their best 45s, but it’s definitely one of the sludgiest sounding CDs of the last few years. And by sludgy, of course, I mean that it sounds totally and completely boss.

Band web site: www.coffinlids.com