Wolfgang Bang – What Are You Going To Do? / 2006 ESM / 9 Tracks / http://www.wolfgangbang.com / Reviewed 25 May 2006

The style of punk music that Wolfgang Bang play during the opening to “What Are You Going To Do?” seems to be influenced by the predecessors to punk, with nods made to acts like The Stooges and the MC5. A very stripped down guitar line goes into virtuosic highs and lows at points, but aside from the drums, guitars and vocals, there is not much else to the act.

“Bambi Went To France” is a song title that should elicit memories of The Ramones, and the arrangements do much of the same thing. A memorable set of vocals go along hand in hand with the bouncy beats provided by the rest of the band. The production is solid, but the band does not need the state of the art production to succeed. When the nucleus of the band is clustered so closely, Wolfgang Bang can even record on a four track and sound pretty much the same way that they do on “What Are You Going To Do?”. The vocal gets a little more grit to them during “Glue Afternoon”, but so does the rest of the band. The increased fuzz on the track makes the band masters of the down and dirty rock that came out of Detroit; while the tempo is about at the same level as it was during the rest of the disc, the difference that this track adds to the disc allows individuals to keep listening on. The high point of “What Are You Going To Do” is “Don’t Shoot Dope”.

The track uses a multiple set of vocals during the chorus to make the track more powerful; Wolfgang Bang could have used this track as the perfect outro, but as it is the track works well. The inclusion of the cowbell during the track has a nice metronome effect, keeping the band honest. The disc is solid but there is a little too much reliance on the same general sound that is present in “Hey Hey Hey”. If there were more tracks that took on “Don’t Shoot Dope” as a model, the results would have been stronger. This lack of variation is pretty much the only problem that one can levy against Wolfgang Bang; they are a strong pop-punk outfit that would have worked as well in the 70s as they do now. Here’s to hoping that their next album is even more impressive!

Top Tracks: Don’t Shoot Dope, I Just Wanna Be Alone

Rating: 5.7/10

[JMcQ]