American Sharks

Album review by CJLO Magazine contributor Craig Carestia

The self-titled release from Austin, Texas stoner-punks (yeah, I just made that up) American Sharks is like a 100-mile-an-hour space cruise down a desolate desert road through the centre of bat country. The album is like punk played through amps built from used Ford Thunderbird parts. If those wizard/tiger/dragon airbrush paintings on the sides of cargo vans in the '70s could record an album of their own, American Sharks would be it.

The band manages a murky mixture of fuzz rock riffage and punk attitude, which is the sonic equivalent of a mullet mixed with a mohawk (or a "mullhawk", if you will).

Standout tracks include "XVI", "Freakout", and "Iron Lungs", but watch out, they go by quick. Weighing in just shy of 20 minutes, I'm not sure whether to call this nine-track album an LP or an EP. Either way, you'll find that it's too damn short. If you're into the Bat Sabbath EP by Toronto band Cancer Bats, this is probably for you.