Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

I’ve probably got a couple of hundred CD in my obscenely large collection of music that sound pretty much like DOWN TO NOTHING by The Most. I keep getting more, however. I’m not sure why that is, and I can probably file that under the heading “Questions I really don’t want the answer to” along with “why I enjoy watching…” well, anyway, The Most project an attitude that puts one in the mind of the Dave Mustaine Finishing School, meaning that they’re almost convincing, though the cargo pants don’t help.

Actually, that’s not fair. I am a little sick of the ripped clothes uniform so many bands of this genre aspire to. I mean, it’s been thirty years since that started, so the people wearing this stuff are basically wearing their parents’ old clothes. That’s really rebellious, uh huh. So it’s kind of refreshing to see The Most rebel against the fashion rebellion. The music? Well, it’s loud and proud, and occasionally anthemic; I hate to admit it, but I was actually joining in on the chorus of “Down On You,” and if I’m doing it, and I’m old enough to have emceed a New York Dolls show --- the original band, in 1973, mind you --- then you’re old enough to be into this too.

Reference points for DOWN TO NOTHING: the aforementioned Mustaine, Sham 69, early Metallica, huge loud slabs of punk and metal. David Wood shouts but doesn’t scream (danke schoen!) and the band’s nihilistic vision is stops just short of being funny, which is more than you can say for a lot of the guys toiling away in the same mine. Take “Your Loss, Your Regrets:” this might be the ultimate break up song, with lyrics like “I was told to keep an eye on you/To never trust a fucking thing you do.” You betcha! I bet when The Most plays this particular song in concert, there’s a bunch of guys in the mosh pit who join in with a full throated roar. And even today, I’d probably be right down there with them, screaming along.

DOWN TO NOTHING is hardly lacking in energy, and there’s actually been some attention paid in the studio to channeling, separation, and , believe it or not, dynamics, after a fashion. Like I said, I’ve got a lot of this genre, and yeah, it pretty much all sounds the same, but I’m having trouble getting it out of the CD player. And I’m still singing, or shouting, along.