I Can Lick Any Sonofabitch In The House - Menace

One of the bests rock bands playing in the US today

I Can Lick Any Sonofabitch In The House

Menace

In Music We Trust

The third album from Portland based band, I Can Lick Any Sonofabitch In The House, Menace is the truest presentation of the bands diverse personality, with songs like the rocking "Gone" mixed in with the more melodic "Pauline" and "Regrets and Greyhounds." Their most reflective album to date, with Mike D’s song writing digging deeper into his troubled soul and enraged heart, where the personal demons of past and present are too tall to look in the eye, even more so than their bluesy debut: Creepy Little Noises. Menace fits squarely between the wild all-out rampage of Put Here To Bleed and the Robert Johnson haunt of their first album and draws strongly on the bands western influences which most likely have a lot to do with Mike D’s Oklahoma up bringing and wanderings through the western US. Ripe with political subject matter, no one gets out unscathed, especially religious leaders and the current administration in the blunt and wonderfully aggressive "Westboro Baptist Church", and nor dose the unsung hero go without notice with the dedication of "Rachel Corrie." "Dust and Sun" is another song that holds a great political message, looking at current events with a fresh perspective, but in my opinion, was the weakest track of the album. SOB wouldn’t be themselves without this political side and the album is better for it’s concrete practice of the1^st amendment.

Musically this album is brimming with the sum of the band’s amazing parts, which make them so strongly unique. The outstanding harp of David Lipkind adds a sound element that sets them apart form all the other rock bands out there. Handsom Jon Burbank is a guitar progeny, that when mixed with the thunderous energy of Mole Harris on Bass and the resolute foundation of Flapjack Texas on drums equals a 12 ton truck plowing through your speakers toped off with the rough voice of Mike D which makes these songs wild and powerful and yet accessible to everyone, unlike the polished voice of popular radio. It’s this rawness that embodies the Northwest sound so definite in the music of SOB and demonstrats the honest laid back attitude of life here in Oregon and the rest of the Northwestern region of the US.

Some of the strongest points of this album include the rambunctious energy of "Gone," and the political rant of "Westboro Baptist Church." While the song writing of Mike D has taken leaps and bounds with "Regrets and Greyhounds" and "Walkin.’" Menace demonstrates the wide diversity of SOB and nails home another 12 track reason why I think they’re one of the bests rock bands playing in the US today.