Los Lonely Boys "Rockpango"

Thought I'd give this a try based on the hype and the great cover (seriously, is that not outstanding?).  I own one song by them and it's not Grammy winning "Heaven."  That track launched LLB to a couple of Top 10 Albums, another in the Top 30, and a respectable selling live album.  Guitarist Garza slings a fairly mean axe, and I was really hoping to hear something inspirational in that respect.  What I got was basically what I had expected, Same Ol' Shitola.  

To be fair, it's not all bad.  "Rockpango" fell just a track or two short of keeper status.  This is one of the songs that I thought was fun...

...however, it suffers from familiarity, a trait I found to be prevalent in most Mexican music while working in the retail biz.  Much of LLB's music sounds like everything else in their genre, and others have done it much better than they.  The vocals are simply one-dimensional, for example.  But I don't begrudge their major success on a major label.  It's given them the funding to start their own label and do what they want with zero restrictions, and this is project number one for studio work.  It hasn't sold nearly as well as previous efforts, but that's to be expected without major distribution.  It has garnered very positive reviews over the four months on the market and I suspect we'll hear more from this record soon with the holiday selling season rapidly approaching.

Those of you who know the Mad Rocker are aware of my passion for the import, and the international version of "Rockpango" has an additional track not available domestically, and it's really the reason I kept fifteen minutes or so of the finished CD.  The extra track is twenty+ minutes of studio outtakes from the sessions, and it offers a welcome glimpse into the making of the record.  Imagine sitting in on a jam session where the beers, the bongs and the laughter are plentiful.  You hear the brothers tinkering with several of the tracks in their early stages, even breaking into "Ghostbusters" when one flurry strikes a similar chord.  They ape on Huey Lewis and Van Halen, too.  I couldn't help but grin at the fun being had in the rehearsal.  Had to give them the benefit of the doubt because of it...