Band:	CKY
Album:	Carver City

Often times, when a band gains fame because of their association with a fad, when the fad loses fashion, so does the band. Have you heard anything from The Brian Setzer Orchestra or Vanilla Ice lately? No. You haven’t.  Because swing dancing and parachute pants stopped being cool.

CKY attempts to buck this trend. The group gained fame by appearing in the “CKY” video series, a series of skate and stunt videos that pre-date “Jackass”. Since then, the band’s music has been strongly associated with that community. Fortunately for CKY, their music stands the test of time better than watching someone paper cut the webbing between their toes.

“Carver City” is instantly recognizable as a CKY album, once the verse starts on “Hellions on Parade”. The major elements of the group’s music still remain intact. The completely unique vocal stylings of Deron Miller have hardly changed. He guides his way through tracks with as much ease as you can expect from someone who has battled with alcoholism. The sludgy, doom inspired guitar tones and riffs are the instrumental equivalent of Deron’s voice.  Imagine drinking a bottle of Jack and chain smoking a pack of menthol; crunchy and raw with a smooth aftertaste.

The album gradually transforms itself. After “Hellions on Parade”; “…And She Never Returned” and “Rats in the Infirmary” start to allow other musical elements to seep into the CKY sound.  Both songs add the occasional percussive effect, moog synths, and interesting vocal effects are all added to the sound scape. It is as if the effects and moog get turned up louder and louder as each song passes. The once unique and dominant guitar tone of the past is reduced to the equivalent of an overdriven, fuzzed out synth on “Imaginary Threats”.

The transformation is complete from “Disengage the Simulator” era CKY to new era CKY when Jess Margera plays the overused disco dance beat through the majority of “The Boardwalk Body” and “Plagued by Images”. Margera’s drums are sloppy at best, even on their better songs, but him playing in a style that is obviously outside of his comfort zone is barely tolerable. He always seems to be playing just outside of his ability, but then you realize when “The Era of an End” begins that even a straight forward beat becomes too much of a task.

When the band rocks, they really rock, and they have shown with this release that they have more depth than anyone thought. It is an interesting spin and the added textures work well more often than not. “A#1 Roller Rager” is the epitome of synth textures on the album, but it is also the best example of how well it can work. The fad band is now playing into more current fads like synth-rock and ’80s homages to new wave. Admittedly CKY’s “Carver City” is much harder than something from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Bravery or Metric, and it is this combination of hard rock and synth-rock that allows them to overcome their shorcomings and saves “Carver City” from being lost in the pile.

CKY Official Site
CKY on MySpace
CKY - “Carver City” on Amazon

Release Date: May 19th, 2009

“Carver City” - Tracklist
(* recommended tracks)

1. Hellions on Parade*
2. …And She Never Returned*
3. Rats in the Infirmary*
4. Imaginary Threats
5. The Boardwalk Body
6. Plagued by Images
7. Karmaworks
8. Woe is Me
9. A#1 Roller Rager*
10. Old Carver’s Bones
11. The Era of an End
12. Fisherman’s Wharf Pt. 1
13. Fisherman’s Whart Pt. 2
14. Doubled Up on Trauma
15. Stripped Your Speech

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