I got this recently and have been listening to it quite a bit. I also have "In Heat", and to be quite honest, that didn't do a lot for me. The playing is great and they have their own unique take on the music, but it just felt kind of overly-hyperactive and "punkish". Still, I recognize them as being very good, just not exactly my style.

I didn't give up on them though, so I tried them again with their "Ride The First Wave" CD. This CD is mainly all covers, many of them very obscure. I was familiar with maybe a third of the songs, if that. This is an excellent CD, I reallly like it a lot. It takes quite a bit of guts to put out a CD that has 30 songs on it, especially if you aren't a good band. But this is not a problem here, I did not suffer from "band fatigue".

Of the songs I am familiar with, The Bitch Boys didn't just play note for note sterile copies. They made sometimes significant changes to the melodies, arrangements, and of course the tones on the guitars. I assume they did the same with the other songs. In fact, in some cases, they changed some key parts so much that at first I was kind of pissed off. But then I realized this was a good thing, making the song their own, and their version actually was a cool and valid interpretation of the original.

The Bitch Boys understand the value of the rhythm guitar. In fact, some of the songs feature 3 guitars, and they work together very well (even though the original may have had only 1 or 2 parts). The rhythm guitar mainly does lots of chording, but of course there is ample Astronauts style "chunking" (heavily reverbed root notes). Very nice! Their rhythm section in general is very tight, it's a wonderful thing.

Sonically, you recognize each song as The Bitch Boys right away. They definitely have their own recognizable style. The lead guitar can be quite savage, and often seems to me to have a touch of echo in addition to reverb. They can be very aggressive and can double pick with the best of them. However, they also can play quite delicate and beautifully, as evidenced by the stunning cover of Podolor's "Dracula's Theme" (one of my favorite tracks on the CD).

Overall, one of the best CD's I have heard lately, highly recommended listening!! Great playing, great tones, and lots of originality and creativity, especially for a so called all-covers album!

BN