The Cincinnati Enquirer

Weekend; Friday May 2,2003

Heavy Metal, heavy steel

Cincinnati's Jackass debuts with refreshingly clever songs.
Heavy metal and clever don't usually appear in the same sentence, let
alone the same cd, but Cammy winning hard-rock quartet Jackass pulls it of
on it's full-length debut.
Along with the traditional guitar, bass, drums (played by Scotty "toy"
Wood, Jason "the Professor" Knarr, And Dave "Senator Rawk" Cahill
respectively) there's a unique twist-"Skeeter's" lap steel. Instead of the
steel's usual blues/Hawiian/country sound, he wrangles chordal keyboard
parts out of it. The exception is "Last Time" where the steel takes the
bluesy leads.
That's just one of the many different heavy sounds on these 12 songs.
There's the sleekly pounding opener "Again"; Black Sabbath-style riffage on
"Bukkake"; The pedal-to-the-metal drive of "3 Wheel Bike." The only thing
that doesn't ring true is the lame "Saran Wrap," wich gives Madonna
competition for the years worst rapping.
But one of the best things about Jackass is how the band doesn't take
itself too seriously. Interspersed with the songs are snippets of
conversation and phone messages. "Smitty's Lament" ridicules the band and
it's name; "Mark=Metal" plays up hilariously lame scatting of an
arrangement; "Lab Land" features unintentionally comic phone messages from
besotted Jackass groupies leading into a lurching cover of ZZ Top's "Manic
Mechanic."
"Donkey Style" kicks hard in a tasty, heavy cocktail that shakes
together potent rock with refreshing humor and a downhome redneck vibe.

-Larry Nager, The Cincinnati Enquirer

 

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