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Rupert Murdoch may be trying to take over American media with purchases such as The Wall Street Journal and Myspace.com. The third track on The Mediam’s new release, Actress, is named after that media mogul from Australia and includes the hook, “Everybody dance to the beat of the corporation” and anyone with a computer and internet can listen to Rupert Murdoch on The Mediam’s (yep, you guessed it) Myspace page at www.myspace.com/themediam.

It is this kind of irony that The Mediam portrays in their songs, as well as in such actions.  The tracks on Actress, with titles such as God is a Communist and Imperial Death March, use sarcastic wit and attitude to convey blunt political and social messages about the failures of American politics and capitalism. Vocalist Gus Nicklas sings in a similar tone as Against Me! singer Tom Gabel with the same smarmy assertiveness.

With a sound seemingly made for the annual Warped Tour, The Mediam play to their niche of youths alienated from all authority by writing songs that relate  political issues to personal problems that everyone has experienced. Unfortunately, though, the music is not as inspiring as the words Nicklas sings ansd screams into the microphone.  They do show some potential for more diverse song structures with the slowed down and almost epic, Assassin. Most of the songs are filled with busy guitar riffs over punk drumming and can become tiresome after a few songs in a row, but the messages being belted out remain commendable, if not ironic.