It's been a long time since I've listened to a full length album and absolutely hated every song. But you have to hand it to Super Geek League for at least attempting to be progressive and experimental. They have the whole Gwar meets Aquabats thing going on, mixed with the punk influences of the Suicide Machines and the maturity of the Bloodhound Gang. But that's definitely not enough to sustain a painful 48 minute listen. Nothing beyond Peppermint Rainbows' cover art is intriguing or exciting. Live, they are a wild theatric circus act of raunchy super heroes with chaotic crowd interaction. Sadly, that can hardly be contained on a plastic disc. Here we have yet another band that has fallen ill with the tragic disease MILS; More Interesting Live Syndrome.Please know that this review is based solely on my experience with the album and the album alone. I have not seen SGL live, so I can't speak from experience, only what I've read about online. From what I've gathered in my research of the group, the live show is sheer lunacy. Scores of musicians and colorful characters writhe on stage and engage the audience in crude and irreverent crowd-pleasing pandemonium, all while playing instruments. Regardless, this is not a review of their performance. So they're not getting off that easy.
I find it hard to make it through the entirety of Peppermint Rainbows. Actually, I find it hard to make it through the entirety of the first song ("Ray and Stan"). Of course, as an album reviewer, I give all albums equal opportunity to impress me. This one didn't. I thought perhaps SGL would be profane, yet somehow profound. Even the most sacrilegious of bands, like Marilyn Manson, make relevant cultural observations. Like the aforementioned Bloodhound Gang, their songs are immature, but not nearly as witty or clever. They have all the substance of Styrofoam packing peanuts, just with less flavor.
I think a good word to describe most of the songs, sounds, and ideas coming from Rainbows would be "irritating." Each wince-inducing track is the auditory equivalent to having poison ivy and sunburn at the same time. In one song they're talking about eating Richard Simmons ("Fat Cannibal") and then in another song they spout severely outdated elementary school jokes about Asians ("King of the Krapper"). At least they're trying to cover their bases. And as far as the blasphemous squeezebox travesty "Jesus in Clown Shoes" goes, well, I'd rather listen to Nickelback. Yes. Nickelback.
I enjoy a good poop, fart, and boner joke every now and then, just not every couple seconds. I'm sure every thirteen year-old boy would put this in his top ten along with (insert new Fueled By Ramen group) and (up and coming Victory Records band). Maybe I'm being too hard on SGL. Perhaps I'm missing the subtleties of the album. Perhaps there is a much deeper meaning in the characters of Doctor Cumsalot and Jimmy Scratchimecock. Perhaps the unnecessarily complicated back story to the band is a profound work of literature and is worth studying in university level graduate programs. Perhaps this album has the potential to, with its ground-breaking style and form, change the course of the music industry, captivate artists and non-artists alike, and bring about a mind-blowing musical revolution that will alter our culture and usher us into a utopian society thereby paving the way for world peace and justice for all civilizations past, present, and future. Either that, or it's just a really crappy album. I'm going to go with the latter of the two.
