Toys That Kill – Flys / 4 Songs / 2004 Asian Man Records / http://www.toysthatkill.com / / http://www.asianmanrecords.com / Released 23 February 2004 / Reviewed 20March 2004

Another strong album from an Asian Man band, but this time, we notice a more-experimental-than-punk band in Toys That Kill. The disc is one big rising action to the magnum opus of Toys That Kill, that song being the orgasmic “Blake St. Valentine”. Starting out with a screeching guitar solo into a complete stop, “Brain Attracts Flies”, the first cut off of the album, has the snotty delivery of a Johnny Reotten with a more AC/DC like sequencing of the guitar and drums. The same general formula is present with “Brave Kids Jump”, although the track sounds more like a Descendents B-side than a Sex Pistols track. With guitars that sound similar to The Living End in the aforementioned “Brave Kids Jump”, Toys That Kill really show their ability to cut tracks that are immediately recognizable and are attractive to all individuals, regardless of whether they listen to punk music or not. The crunchier “I Am The Fly” really puts a different spin to the band, further showcasing their fluidity in the various genres of popular music; the aforementioned track is heavy on the Neil Young influence.

While “I Am The Fly” is awash with distortion, the track is still the most raw of any that are on the disc, with the back-up vocals on the track breaking out of the general sound at the end of the track. Lyrically, Toys That Kill hearken back to the tradition of storytelling bands, such as Rancid, especially on “Blake St. Valentine.” The track has a message and interesting subject matter, as evidenced in “he learned to scramble the bastards signal/but like an elephant thru a preschool dream/they questioned with a tank and the FCC/he answered with a straw and a napkin/and screamed “you aint invited anyways.” While the disc is lucky to clock in slightly over 12 minutes, the four tracks can spin on and on without anyone getting tired at the 5th or 6th go around. Toys That Kill is a band that is rare in their appreciation for rock and roll music and their incorporation of that love into a straight-forward punk vein.

Everything on “Flys” is simple in a period of over-produced music and the withdrawal from the mix in the creation of mediocre albums. “Flys” is an EP that is Spartan, at some times being nothing more than a set of drums and a slightly-distorted guitar, and it is really what popular music needs in this period of image over musical substance.

Rating: 7.8/10

Top Track : “Blake St. Valentine”