Short Reviews [Naked Mall Rats - 2008 - "Somewhere on the Internet"]

NAKED MALL RATS is one of many musical projects led by a guy from Philadelphia named George Korein. Most of his musical outings belong somewhere in the very alternative field of music and will not appeal to a large mainstream audience. Naked Mall Rats is the result of a jam session in October 2006 that has been edited and slightly fleshed out in the studio for some time after the jam session. Musically it is mostly simplistic music, with much noise, some psychedelic touches and leanings towards punk and funk in style. Many of the songs remind me quite a lot of early ‘70s krautrock, albeit a simplistic form of it. As for clear musical inspirations, the form of music presented here is too alien for me to be able to pinpoint specific probable inspirations present; the music as such seems to be a mix of lots of different stuff. As for the songs, the most notable thing is that this is music that will appeal to few. Listening through the album the first couple of times, I got the impression that this was music recorded by young teens as a spoof. It sounded like more or less garbled noise, with some lucky melodic hits now and then. Closer listening revealed that there was indeed more plan and structure to the music, and that the people making this music actually are musicians and not amateurs, although at what level I can't really say. The vocals are the most off-putting aspect of this release; they still sound like slightly off-key ramblings from teens, and I kind of suspect that this effect is intended. The lyrical content of the disc seems aimed at a younger crowd too: short ramblings like "Jeffree Star is a Noob" and "I'm Old Enough for MySpace" are prime examples of stuff I really can't see the average 30-60 y.o. playing loud in their car or in their home. Still, apart from the vocals and the lyrics there is stuff that may be of interest here. This is an odd release, so approach with caution. Main audience: people that think the song titles here are "way cool".

OMB: February 9, 2009