Bottom Rockers are messing with you—and they’re hoping you enjoy it. Take a song like “Dead in the Desert,” which starts out as an expanding blues exercise before it rambles into a spaghetti western then takes a hard left turn and throws you head-first into a car-wreck of a guitar meltdown. It’s a weird song, but a lot of fun. Partial Arts is the first full-length from these downtown stage-wreckers and packs its 10 songs full of unexpected and wild action. While some of these songs were previously available on EPs, this album gives all the band’s current live staples studio treatment. The results are beautifully clear and (barely) balanced combinations of country, squalling blues, and fuzzy garage rock with all four members screaming along. By turns sarcastic and explosive, these are songs that demand to be heard at any time, not just on Friday night.
[Rating:4]
-Justin Allec
