Here’s a challenge:  Collect every recording by punk journeymen, Electric Frankenstein.  To complete the challenge you’ll have to perform a Herculean scavenger hunt the likes of which will have to match the original Dr. Frankenstein’s lofty ambitions of necrotic regeneration.  Instead of having to locate a few dozen viable human body parts, you’ll have to dig up over 100 appearances on record spanning 40-plus record labels.  Good luck with that.  In thirteen or so years worth of living death as a band, EF has made a career of cranking out albums faster than Starbucks can mass produce over-priced coffee houses.  

In 2005, it looks as if EF will continue their breakneck pace.  With a new album due out in April, clearly, the pitchfork-bearing mobs of EF fans needed a stopgap for those extra few weeks.  And so, “Super Kool” is brought to life on the mountain laboratory’s table.

In what can only be described as Electric Frankenstein’s umpteenth release of their storied career, the band delivers like they always have. There’s really no point in expecting anything flashy in an EF record, they don’t have time for bells and whistles.  It’s just bass drums and guitars yet again, but if you’re doing it right, why do it different? Besides, they have to get to work on their next record. 

“Super Kool” is an EP culled from the tracks that will not appear on the bands forthcoming album featuring five new songs and three covers of such stalwarts as the Sex Pistols, Black Sabbath and the Nomads.  To their credit, these songs don’t sound at all like castoffs.  “Injected”, “Tear it Down”, and the title track are all worthy additions to their already vast catalog.  There’s a workman like efficiency to these songs, this is a band going to work doing what they do best.  EF is past of the point of even being “in the pocket”, they’re symbiotically related. Even the covers are above average for covers, the Sabbath tune is particularly strong.  If they had recorded it in an outhouse it would fit in nicely on Evil-Live, it’s got that Misfits feel to it. Beyond the obvious influence of the Misfits, Black Flag, and the Damned, hints of early Mudhoney and even a little Grand Funk slip through the tightly woven rock tapestry that is Electric Frankenstein.  The bands that EF is most reminiscent of, however, are juggernauts like the Ramones and Motorhead.  It’s hard to try to drop EF into shoes as large as those, but their mentality is the same as the above-mentioned genre-definers.  It just so happens that the genre of music they elect to play has already been defined.  In essence, what makes the Ramones and Motorhead tick is the complete lack of regard for anything extraneous.  The music is stripped down and rocking, but, as EF is quick to point out in their bio, they don’t forget the “Roll”.  In a perfect world these songs would be Pop songs.  The world, however, is not perfect.  And it’s probably not ready for Electric Frankenstein either, but resistance may be futile as we continue getting buried in piles of their LP’s and CD’s like so many fuzz pink Tribbles.  

But hey, at least they Rock... And Roll.
 

Rating: (on an EP curve)

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