Right off the bat, BUZZED AND LOADED is one bad ass band name and I need to find out more about their story, their members and quite possibly, their prison records. Turns out they are a multi-award nominated band from Seattle. In 2021 Music Industry experts picked them out of 54,000 submissions at the largest Global Independent Music Awards (JMA's) as finalist for Album of the Year "Drunken Delusions", Rock Single of the Year "Bad Penny", and Buzz Brown (drums) and Rob Trosino (guitar, vocals) were both nominated as Musicians of the Year. In 2022 they repeated the album of the year nomination and were added in seven more categories. So, I guess I have to apologize for the "prison" crack. With all those notable industry recognitions on their resume, they have released their sophomore full-length album "Fast Cars and Dive Bars" on July 11, 2023 on Sliptrick Records. Okay, okay, so I judged a book by its cover, lets listen and see if I'm wrong.

My first reaction to the two opening tracks "Bad Penny" and "Rip it Up" are that they sound like ZZ TOP on downers. With very simplistic and mundane riffs and licks dominating the overlay of innocuous and hushed guitar tones tiptoeing ever so gracefully over the nonchalant vocals. "Won't Drink your Blues" has the same syrupy, funky vocals with a very repetitious riff and slow-moving backbeat. Definitely not rock, and I can't really even say they are blues, I guess they're a "tweener" of the two, even though they rip off a brief edgy guitar lick at times. On to the title track "Fast Cars and Dive Bars" is a hard listen with amateurish karaoke sounding vocals, slow moving tempo, just a boring and apathetic song. The last four tracks did absolutely nothing to give me hope on finding a song I even remotely liked, so ending with "Kiss and Tell" finds the same ingredients of this half-baked album, slow, prodding tempo and melodies.

The record company press release states the lyrical themes revolve around true life escapades and shenanigans including being shot at by a crazed ex-lover, excessive partying, unexpected police activity, numerous failed relationships, and even one of three nude hitchhiking adventures, so these escapades alone should have made for a rocking good time, but it failed miserably. "Fast Cars and Dive Bars" is the album you purchased from the "bargain bin" at the record store because of the cool cover and the band name and thinking you've found a diamond in the rough, but after giving it a spin, you realize why it was in the "bargain bin". Sorry guys, I just couldn't find anything positive to say about this effort.