Heavy AmericA’s “Easy Killer” is a unique track. The song’s electric guitar intro suggests some variety of heavy metal. It’s a bellowing, rumbling, thundering chordal groove. The drums vary wildly, sort of like Keith Moon at his unrestrained best. There’s also, though, sounds on it that give it a new wave vibe.
The guitar part is dirty, and a little static-y. Toward track’s end, there’s even a handclap rhythm driving the groove. These elements suggest T. Rex and Mott The Hoople, by way of Queens Of The Stoneage. The result is sexy, adrenaline-soaked rock and roll. Or, in other words, the good stuff.
This group is from Boston, MA, and lists “music, Jeeps hot rods and pin-up girls” as a few of its interests. This song suggests an adulting rock and roll group. They’re not out to finesse listeners. Instead, they’re all about pounding out a groove, repeating the hook until it hooks into your memory cells and sticks. Subtlety? Nah.
Michael T. Seguin is the band’s singer and sings this track with a wink and a smile. Although it’s at times difficult to pick up on exactly what he’s singing, this song’s lyric sounds to be a sort of pick-up line. He’s not Prince Charming, but one gets the feeling he’s not afraid to charm the dress off some pin-up-ready girl or other.
This song’s melody isn’t complicated. With Heavy AmericA there’s a singlemindedness running through this instrumentation. This sonic matches to the seeming intent of its words. Why beat around the bush, explore multiple unrelated topics, when one can get straight to the point without filter or diversion? That’s the immediate impression left by Heavy AmericA’s approach.
It’s also difficult to decipher what the song’s title is all about. “Easy Killer” reads a little like a pulp fiction book title. It might make for a wonderful Quentin Tarantino movie title, in fact. One imagines Heavy AmericA also digs Tarantino, and likely for the same reasons most folks have latched onto Quentin’s cinematic worldview. The left-leaning, NPR realm is endlessly attempting to present a world filled with beautiful, moral people, yet Tarantino knows all too well that there’s also a dark underworld thriving. His films look in on the criminal element among us. These are people that live, not to create a better planet, but to tear stuff up. They live for adventure. Heavy AmericA also appears to live for adventure. They’re out for a thrill, and this song is like the theme song to a wild night.
Rock and roll used to be much more dangerous. It was subversive, naughty and reckless. One senses a little of that spirit running through “Easy Killer.” When people say, ‘That really rocks!’ these days, they’re not tapping into the true ruckus spirit of rock and roll. They’re, instead, sanitizing it beyond recognition. Heavy AmericA wants to bring us back to the true meaning of rock. When Elvis swiveled his hips – but was only shown from the hips up – on the Ed Sullivan Show, it was a little scandalous. One imagines Heavy AmericA also wants to be seen as slightly scandalous. This act rocks, and by that we don’t mean in a PG-13 way.
-Dan MacIntosh
