by Wheaton Hop
Hey there! Ready for a rollercoaster? Well, buckle up. That’s exactly what you’re gonna get with Mikey Erg’s newest (and already repressed) self titled album brought to you by Rad Girlfriend Records.
The anticipation for this one was off the charts. Having missed out on the initial pressing, I resigned myself to rolling my eyes at the prospect of having to barter with the Discogs overlords. Thankfully, a little bit of dumb luck fell in my lap when a repress was announced and here I sit on a Saturday night with Mikey. And I like it. You could say, I’m kinda like smitten.
Let’s dig in, shall we?
Side A: Piece Of Coke
Can’t Be Too Careless: The opener eases you into the quintessentially Mikey Erg vibe and a saga that jumps at you with an energy and tone that is unmistakable. You know exactly what you’re in for with this one and it’s as comfortable, introspective, and astute as you would expect from him. That is, until a sudden charge of energy follows and rockets this coaster up an angsty, balls to the wall frenzy that is…
Spin The Black Circle: This cover gears up, pins your back to the chair, and just as you expect Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder to wail from your speakers… BAM! Mikey comes screeching through with a force I’m not even sure I could reckon with. This one has power enough to knock the wind out of your sails and simultaneously fill you with an energy that forces you to face the fuckedupedness of everything that keeps knocking you down. You’re gonna conquer whatever the hell it is that pisses you off at the moment. And it’s going to bow and thank you before trotting off to…
Rubin Hall: Come on down and take a breather. You’ve earned it. Slide into reminiscence with good friends and a good beer. It’s last call, so make regrets now and plans later, waking up in a fuzzy haze, to sit and ruminate over that one time….
Hey Marissa: This is what you came for the night before. You’ve been in this familiar place many times with Mikey. It’s like the part of the ride that has hairpin emotional curves and needs some finesse to navigate. This one is all of us. Like the guy is in your head and he knows exactly what it feels like when you hit that…
Rumble Strip: Life is tricky, huh? Angst is climbing up that track again. People are messy. We all fuck up, get kicked in the teeth and eventually kick ourselves in the ass and try to figure out a way because I…
Got To Get You Back In My Life (Cocaine): But I’m not going to do anything about it except maybe rage through my house telling myself I am a complete asshole and never should have gotten on that ride… but I might just need one more trip to be sure. Pretty much sums up Side A of this album and the ride I call my life.
Side B:
Hoffman On Heroin
Denny Songs: Sliding into Side B, the momentum keeps going with an homage to the end of a fucked up year with what I hear as “dirty” songs in our lungs. It’s kinda apt, because we remember the rocky ride that got us to this point and can recall “when I was unhappy here” and it’s pure joy, actually. Thanks for putting the songs in Mikey’s lungs, Denny. We’re gonna coast on home with them now because we’re…
Going To Pasalacqua: Let’s swing on over real quick for a hang with our old pals, Green Day. What the heck, why not? At first, I was skeptical about throwing more than one cover on a seemingly short-ish album but Mikey knew exactly where we needed to be at this moment. Like he knows that we’re inevitably in for nasty weather and need a sideway trek to memory lane before we succumb and need to pick up the…
God Mic: We’ve sunk into the not always safe zone that is our own head. The ghosts know where to find us and this hauntingly beautiful piece reminds us that sometimes life fucking hurts and we try and try to get out of our own ways and get to that cathartic place of riding the wave out and are ready to just…
Give Up: After a wistful breath and sigh, we feel a rumble of dirgy energy rising up again. And we relent. It’s a fuzzy, dizzying trip, Mikey. And I’m grateful for it.
If I could sum this album up in one word, it would be: Emotional. Emotions aren’t always pretty and sometimes they scare the shit out of us. Sometimes we’re just pissed off for the sake of being pissed off and you just need to fight the dicks. Sometimes, we need to sit quietly with our memories, some that make us smile and hope. Some that drop us into depths we don’t know we can escape. Like I said, people are emotionally messy. Mikey’s messy, I’m messy, you’re messy. And it’s gorgeous. And that’s exactly what music should make you realize. He just did a solid job of reminding us of that. So…
Thank you for letting us catch this ride with you, Mikey.
– Wheaton Hop
