Butch Walker first made his name in the 80s as the guitarist for Southgang —a sure Flash Metal Suicide. He reappeared in the Marvelous 3 to moderate success. Their tune, "Freak of the Week" earned them plenty of radio play and kickstarted them into their best (yet widely unrecognized) effort, "Ready, Sex, Go," which was chalked full of cock-rock choruses and meaty guitar hooks, but that appeal to everyone from punk rockers to university student government presidents. A friend of mine said it sounded like modern-day Warrant which was very much a compliment to Warrant considering a lot of the drivel that they've put out over the years. Eventually the M3 broke up, and Walker did two solo records. The very much M3-sounding "Left of Self-Centered," and "Letters," which was a complete attempt at appealing to sorority girls and very much not rock with the exception of maybe two tracks. Walker, who has produced and written tracks for Avril Lavigne, Pink and just about anyone else with tits on a major label has never been able to commercially succeed with his own albums. He's not going to do it with his "Butch Walker and the Let's Go Out Tonights" effort either. His latest disc continues his trend at trying to put out a platinum seller, but he'll be lucky if it sells 100,000, and that's on freakin' Sony. He tries to rock and be catchy, but at no point does anything on this disc really stand out. The best two tracks are "Hot Girls in Good Moods," and "Bethamphetamine," which don't try so hard to convey the hipster, lounge-rock image that the rest of the album spews at the listener. The whole project just seems forced. It's rumored that Walker is reverting back to his arena rock style for his next solo project due later this year. Hopefully he does it. He's one of the few guys with clout enough to do something about the terrible state of modern mainstream music.
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- BJ Lisko