REVIEW: BettyAss | Mudeung Mount Bomber (2013)

BAND: Betty Ass
RELEASE: Mudeung Mount Bomber (2013)
REVIEWER: Riz Farooqi of King Ly Chee
FIND MORE INFO HERE:
https://www.facebook.com/BettyAss
Final Rating: 10/10

I think the best way to begin this record review is by giving you a background to the band’s name, Betty Ass, straight from the mouth of their vocalist Ji HongBum:

Why is your band called Betty Ass?
I named my band name after a porn actress. When I was 12 I watched a porno for the first time and I was totally in complete shock by the “actresses” massive ass! Man, I was just an innocent little kid at the time! The name of the porn was Betty’s Apartment. So when I was thinking of a name for my band, suddenly her big massive ass came to mind. When people hear my band’s name I want it to be just as shocking as when I first saw Betty’s huge ass! 

There you have it folks…welcome to the world of punk rock done the fun way!

This EP was released in 2013 but not a moment on this EP does any of the music, lyrics or production sound dated at all (2013 is really not that long ago people! Come on!). As soon as this slab of fun loving punk rock begins you hear the dirt and skate patches screaming at you through the snare-guitar build up of killer opener Bastard. And then the song goes into a short psychobilly riff before all hell breaks loose and you hear the familiar sounds of 90’s skate-punk ravaging your eardrums. Then when the vocals kick in this band goes from sounding pretty good to out-fucking-standing! His vocals are a mix of old school rock n’ roll updated with a pinch of Pennywise only with even more grit and passion – yeah, I said that. When he gets into the melody of the chorus I challenge you not to think Pennywise About Time era:

You gotta listen to me 
Stop keep fucking saying blah blah blah 
You’d better sit down down down 
Sit down down down 
You talk too much, fucking bastard!

The quality of this EP’s song craft and musicianship doesn’t let up once. Throughout the recording they managed to maintain something that is very difficult to do with punk rock releases. They manage to capture the grit and dirt of a punk rock live show – a punk rock live show IS where punk rock is seen, heard and felt the best. A recording can rarely capture that magic…but THIS EP does it so well!

The next song Go, Get a Sk8 is the track they just released a music video for which you can enjoy below…this is a stomper of a punk rock track – fast, angry and one of the most aggressive tracks on this EP…this is what all hardcore punk songs SHOULD sound like and all packaged and delivered in a neat 1:52 seconds!

Third track Lord of the Underground gives you a much needed breather after the first two tracks have basically annihilated you. The whole track slows things down but right at the two minute mark an old school as fuck rock and roll riff will leave you breathless again as you wonder how they managed to so seamlessly this riff into a punk rock masterpiece.

Fourth track is called Dead Punk Rockers Society that opens with an old Ramones-esque drumming right before they bring it back to the 2000’s with speed and aggression and amazing melodic vocals.

Just when you think this 6 song EP can’t kick your ass enough…the wrap up the EP with the last song that harks back to the old Hi-Standard days of punk rock…and what a great way to finish up this great piece of Asian punk rock goodness.

I can’t stress enough how important it is for all of you to buy and download this EP from their bandcamp below…I talked to them online to find out more about what’s going and they said, in true punk rock fashion, they have no plans besides just having fun.

I’ll leave it at that and a lyric that sums up what Betty Ass is all about:

I play punk rock 

to keep my soul 

It’s not a fucking business for me