Kid Chaos
Love in the Time of Scurvy
Vile Beat
Kicking off with the beyond-infectious “Radio Revolution,” Kid Chaos’ Love in the Time of Scurvy gets off to a promising start [radical] almost too promising. The band’s most succinct raison d’être, the song compacts Nation of Ulysses-esque shakedown appeal and smarty-pants rasp with Rocket From the Crypt’s barroom brass section and sweat-drenched attitude, the whole of it being one big pint-raising dance number, but, sadly, the rest of the album fails to live up to this undeniable energy. At its best, the bulk of Love in the Time of Scurvy is variations of this theme, only with less aplomb; at its worst, rewrites of Strung Out throwaways with horns added. At its middle ground, though, the album serves as one of those backyard barbecue soundtracks for twentysomethings, cookouts where everyone’s drinking Old Milwaukee talls at four o’clock in the afternoon and you’re busy trying to lift your bro’s girlfriend: semi-innocent, carefree chicanery set to a punk-rock beat. The sun is out, so put on a smile.
Vile Beat, P.O. Box 42462, Washington, DC 20015, http://www.vilebeat.com
