Wheels On Fire’s album Get Famous! has a sound somewhere between 60’s garage-rock and 50’s party music. The songs are short, foot stomping and energetic, which means that the album runs short at just over thirty minutes. Imagine the Swinging Medallions without a horn section or maybe the Kinks meets the Stooges but with an organ; every song is preoccupied with laying down a head-bobbing beat, insert guitar solo/screeching organ drone, and end song abruptly.

The vocal track is buried so far down into the mix that I honestly have no idea what any song is about other than “Gallon of Gin,” which is presumably about drinking a metric fuckton, “Can’t Get A Line” is (I guess) about not being able to reach someone on the telephone or not being able to find a connection (can’t really tell which; I just assume they do massive amounts of coke), and “Metal Mandy” (my favorite) is most likely about a girl whom the singer(s) wants the attention of.

There’s just enough country-rock in this album to make me hate it, but there is so much organ and drums that I just can’t resist making jerky motions that could be mistaken for dancing in some parts of society. I guess my rating would have to be maybe 3/5? Or whatever arbitrary rating system one is supposed to use in music reviews right now. Either way, despite the “bad things” that I say about them, I will keep them in my music library as I do like listening to their music and will be keeping my eye on the local venues for a show of theirs sometime.

http://www.myspace.com/wheelsonfire