Sideburn
Gasoline

Sideburn will be back in october or something around that for their next new album, until then they think we can make due with their 2003 effort called Gasoline which has been gifted trio of bonus tracks for its ten years anniversary. Three live tracks recorded in 2012 so that you can know the new line up which sees one change in lineup since the latest album Jail. We are dealing with a band who’s musical foundation is as solid as they come and unwavering they do their thing which is biker-, or trucker rock which is hard as hell and catchy, everything needed at the truck stop or during a long haul of goods from town to town.

This is what you can expect from Siderburn, it smells like an american truck stop diner and outside we have the odour of gasoline which is a far less potent fuel for cars than what we have here in Europe. It is powerful and catch, typical rock singer and for you who know the band it is typical Sideburn. Good production both on the eleven original tracks but also on the three live bonus tracks that is the added value of this reissue. They blend in quite well but they also add quite a bit of playing time making the album touch upon the hour in playing time which is a tad long if you ask me. Still, it is well made and a solid quality production so fans of Sideburn will find this amusing as well, although they have most likely already heard most of it.

Sideburn is not the band you turn to for musical thrills and musical adventures, they do their thing which is quite predictable and they do it very well. These swiss guys follows the swiss tradition of similar hard rocking music, I mean we have bands like for instance Krokus and Gotthard to add to the biker rockers from Switzerland. I like this album even though you can hardly say that it constitutes anything different from Cherry Red or Jail which are the two other Sideburn albums I know quite well. Nevertheless, it has some strong tracks like for instance Rip it Up or the opening Baby Don’t Care which seems to have borrowed something from Status Quo’s Pictures of Matchstick Men from 1968. A bit of a shame to see such brilliance reduced to biker rock, nothing bad about biker rock but it will never truly be brilliant. Well, this album is what it is, I am not sure fans will find the three bonus tracks worth their while but for those of you who haven’t picked this album up yet, it may be a good choice.

It is good enough for some entertainment and I am sure it is a good company when driving through the countryside towards the next destination, I found that it did well for blasting 100 km without tiring. Yeah, a good album but nothing that will ever change history or revolutionise music, it is a solid and good rocker, plain and simple.

HHHHHHH