Tuesday, April 8, 2014

CASSETTE REVIEW: Playboy Manbaby / Petty Things “Scum Brothers” (Rubber Brother Records)


            Right away, what I like about this split cassette from Playboy Manbaby and Petty Things is that unlike most splits out there (That is to say, every split I’ve reviewed thus far), these two bands trade off songs as opposed to actually being, well… split.   This is not a case of “That side’s yours, this side’s mine”, but rather both bands appear on both sides with the songs alternating.   If nothing else, it is a great way to make people pay attention because you can’t just simply zone out after you fill your head with preconceived notions on the first song.

            So, together, these two bands have managed to create a nicely mixed cassette which should be more about the individual songs than the particular band playing them.  From early Modest Mouse to Franz Ferdinand, or Rise Against to Bullets & Octane, some different influences are shown (and thus the different bands) but somehow it still manages to flow together. 

            When listening to a cassette where Side A is Band #1 and Side B is Band #2, it can become important to make sure that the two sides either sound cohesive together or different enough that they can be separated.   Blending these two bands together creates an entirely new aspect of listening, as you don’t want to have one song be the complete opposite of the next.  Well, let’s just say as an extreme case, using two widely known names, I wouldn’t make a split like this with Michael Bolton and Slipknot taking turns, but I wouldn’t really listen to a cassette with either of those names on it anyway.

            At a time when the musical flow seems to be most crucial, Playboy Manbaby and Petty Things somehow manage to make this work perfectly, fit like a glove even as OJ Simpson would say.   Kudos to Rubber Brother Records for putting this together, regardless of whether or not it was their vision for this to become so fluent a cassette.  









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