Beats the
Hell Out of Me - Revising History
By Kevin Wierzbicki
This Phoenix band has been kicking around
for about fifteen years. That’s a long road to hoe on a local circuit without
national recognition. Revising History probably won’t change the
band’s stature---they’ll have to just keep hacking away and waiting for
the world to catch on. The main thing the boys have going for them is their
leader, singer Mike Pistrui. Pistrui is blessed with a unique voice; a
voice that is instantly recognizable and a voice that should be floating
on the popular airwave. His vocals sound like a suave Burton Cummings (the
Guess Who) one minute and a slightly psycho Fee Waybill (the Tubes) the
next, all set to an arrangement that recalls Queensryche. The band is also
good at using musical metaphor, closing out “Move Along” with scratching
guitar and drums to simulate the ticking off of precious time. Elsewhere
short bursts of electric guitar well up like emotions ready to explode,
most notably on the look-over-your-shoulder “Ongoing Criminal Investigation.”
If there is any complaint with this record, it’s that the songs tend to
sound a bit similar as the disc progresses. They’re not by any means experimental,
but Beats the Hell out of Me sit just outside the expected, leaving them
in that grey area on the fringe of mass success.
CD Info
Beats
the Hell Out of Me - Revising History
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