Mischief Brew - The Stone Operation (2011)

From last.fm:


"Mischief Brew is an Anarchist folk-punk band. It is a wicked concoction by Erik Petersen – a musical feast falling somewhere between the categories of pirate punk, Celtic folk, gypsy swing, devilish jazz, American olde-tyme and country. It’s good music to stomp, kick, pogo, jitterbug, waltz, drink, twist and shout to – whether the performance is solo acoustic or with a backing band of accordion, drums, and mandolin."


What summer can't be complete without a new Mischief Brew album! The 2011 outdoor summer anthem? I'm calling it! I've been well on the trail of The Stone Operation for a little over a few months now and I'm proud to have gotten my hands on it. If you're familiar with Mischief Brew then this album shouldn't disappoint one single bit. This anarcho-punk gypsy band ceases to amaze me with their original spin on the stale folk punk genre with their unique blend of old-tymey music with pre-1900s style of playing. What strikes me as odd about this album is that it's electric. I can only imagine that Erik Petersen's old punk band, The Orphans, had a big influence on him when making this album. Their honky tonky junky wunky sound is still present though, with instruments such as a banjo, cow bell, rusty pipes, xylophones, and sheet metal... it's just ELECTRIC! Hell, with their horn section and throwing in a few ska hooks one could even almost mistaken it for some kind of ska-hybrid junkyard infusion. The song that most represents this is Pompus-Ass Manifesto, which even uses lyrics like "pick it up", maybe even poking fun at Streetlight Manifesto with the a title like that? Who knows but it's fucking ingenious. Another song that I REALLY like is the Untitled one at the end. I can't really make out the lyrics to the song (because I suck) but it has this dark and dismal sound to it right from the get go with the slowly strummed guitar riff and slowly but surely entering violin and despairing sound of the tambourine. It almost reminds me of Leftover Crack... but a lot more darker and deeper without all the ska influence as well. All in all, this has got to be one of my favorite Mischief Brew albums. They've taken everything they put out in their previous albums and added a twist to it, for which I can't complain. Damn this shitty vocabulary! I totally could of described this a lot better but I'm so cluster fucked at the moment. For what it is, I have to declare this one of the best, if not, BEST folk punk/gypsy album release this year.

Download HERE