EXCLUSIVE REVIEW: Albert Hammond Jr. and Mooney Suzuki

Story by David Searle -

March 21st @ Birdy’s

Have you heard of Carlos Mencia? I’m sure you have. But have you heard of Carlos Menstealia?There is a war going on in the comedy world. Apparently, a few of comedy’s top acts (Mencia, Dane Cook) are guilty of cheating by stealing jokes from other comics. I would say ‘allegedly,’ but the evidence is overwhelming. If you are into stand-up, my guess is that you have a very passionate opinion about the subject one way or another.

Originality is a touchy subject in any art scene, and music is no exception. If you ever feel like getting your ass beat, go to a show at the Melody Inn and unironically shout out a request for ‘Brown Eyed Girl’. Rarely if ever will you see a bill split between an original band and a cover band.

And like Mencia, there has been a long history of rock bands being accused of plagerism, from Led Zepplin to Green Day to Jet. The king of these accusations is when John Fogerty, through some crazy loophole, was sued for sounding like himself.

The Mooney Suzuki is neither guilty of being a cover band nor of directly stealing riffs. But their recent performance at Birdy’s fell into a third category - they borrowed so many elements from so many bands so frequently that their performance was utterly unremarkable.

Busting out my well-worn copy of “Introduction To Modern Rock Criticism,” I see that a good review should describe five things: the quality of the songwriting, the look & stage presence of the band, the reaction of the crowd, and the quality of the musicianship. Well, this may sound like a cop-out, but I swear that the songs were indistinguishable, the onstage set-up and crowd interaction was rock’n'roll 101, and the crowd was reduced to polite head-nodding. I will give the band one kudos, in that they were very tight for the first half of the set, after which the apathy of the audience seemed to skim off whatever edge they had.

The only thing worse than a boring, droning show is a boring, droning review of a boring, droning show. So I will leave it at that.

Albert Hammond Jr. provided an interesting spin on the originality in art conversation. His band and his material sounded virtually identical to one specific band: The Strokes. This is mostly forgivable, however, because of course Hammond is an actual member of The Strokes.

If you are a fan of leather jackets and Jewfros, you would love this band. Beyond giving a few “thank you”s to the audience, Hammond was mostly silent. The most gregarious member of the band was the keyboard player, who finished each song with a little keyboard flourish and winked to friends in the audience.

“101″ and “Everyone Gets A Star” were the highlights, and unsurprisingly were the Strokes-est. He added a little keyboard here and an acoustic guitar there, but mostly he was content to stick to the jagged guitar rhythms, the bursts of high-hat, and steady bass lines that made his NY band famous.

Neither band was an epiphany, but Albert Hammond’s license to steal succeeded where the Mooney Suzuki failed.

– David Searle —

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