by Kevin Jenkins
Detroit has been the home of American Muscle, the Giacalone crime family, and the launching pad of bands like MC5, Bob Seger, Mitch Ryder, Anita Baker, George Clinton and the Detroit Cobras.
Allow me to add to this list a straight forward, take-no-shit American Rock & Roll band called The Muggs, and introduce you to their music via their newest release, Slave To Sound, Volume 5.
This release has everything you could ask for in a power-trio rock outfit – Hard punching guitar riffs over driving, groove laden bass lines, backed with white-knuckled aggressive drumming. All of it comes together with a sound that makes you wanna slam a beer and make out with that girl in the leather pants who looks like she’d scare your Mom.
Raw and gritty songs like the title track Slave To Sound and Patent Pending, not to mention Sons & Daughters are the pillars of an album that has absolutely sold me as a new fan on the fact that this is a band I need to see live.
However, this collection has also allowed for several surprises, from the Mo-town feeling Magnet and Steel, to the soulful groove-blues track After The Ending, and even a radio drama intro to the spooky jam The Boogens – never out of place and never done halfway.
A few nods to the song-writing formula – these guys are students of some great bands, and it shows. Without trying to force anyone into a cage, these guys have every bit of melodic, anthemic feel of bands like Boston or the Allman Brothers, but every bit of in-yer-face confidence and edge of acts such as Steppenwolf or The Tragically Hip.
In addition to fantastic musician ship displayed throughout this collection of songs, there are some absolute lyrical gems that had me chuckling and rewinding just to make sure I actually heard what I heard.
The Muggs stand out in a field of watered down, “safe-for-mass-consumption” rock ‘n’ roll. There is no pretense, and once they start, they aren’t going to wait for you to catch up. I can’t promise they are for everyone, because not everyone can handle this. But I’ll tell you this much: The Muggs are raw, and unfiltered, and if you listen to them while driving, you’re gonna get a speeding ticket.
In a world full of over-produced, homogenized, squeaky clean pop, The Muggs are proof of life that gritty, blue-collar, plug-in-and-play, dive bar rock still exists, and if anything is every sugar-coated, you have to trust it’s for your own protection.
Grab this recording, turn it up load, and piss off the neighbors.
