Reviews

Filthy Thieving Bastards may have started as a side project for Johnny Bonnel and Darius Koski of the Swingin’ Utters, Spike Slawson of Me First & the Gimme Gimmes, and producer Randy Burk, but four albums later it seems the band is still going strong.
 
Their latest record, I’m a Son of a Gun, is all over the place musically. The album starts out with “Phony Drunken Poet,” a song driven by a classical folk and Irish sound, but from there on, songs switch up from country, to Latin inspired, and even 60’s psychedelic pop. There is a punk and folk undertone to a majority of the album, but songs like “Move Out of Here” come straight out of left field with psychedelic beats and wacky sound effects.
 
The album features many tracks that could be considered good cruising, road trip music, meant for smoking cigarettes and enjoying the scenery, kind of like a Johnny Cash album. Spike’s vocals are distinct and flow well in every band he sings for. The music definitely sounds that of the style of musicians in the band, but nutty…in a good way. There are sound effects on the album that sound like they are out of an old Western TV show or a episode of Tom & Jerry with an occasional “Ah, ha!” in the background.
 
At just under 35 minutes long, with none of the fourteen tracks reaching over three minutes, the album has a good array of music from punky tracks like “When We Were Kids” to a slow closing with, “Last of the Big Spenders.”  Not necessarily an album I would want to listen to every day, but definitely something unique worth checking out.