Murdocks Have Too Much Fun

Murdocks' Distortionist doesn't really distort very much except the volume of their record. In that case, the title is completely factual as Distortionist is a rip roaringly loud good time with guitars chiming and ringing out of every crevice of your listening device. Murdocks are rambunctious, powerful, punchy poppers with a penchant for Weezer records on overdrive and a bit of screamo served up on the side. To say that Distortionist is a high energy record is an understatement as there's so much musical electricity flowing through each of the songs here that together they could solve the world's energy problems.

Quick, nervous, and crammed with enough catchy melodies and riffs to last a life time, Distortionist will do about anything to get it's point across. This is a record that's as stubbornly cool as it is hyper and dumb and I think that's what makes it so much fun. Listening to Murdocks rip through Distortionist is like listening to a bunch of nerds who suddenly realized they were super cool and didn't know how to handle it so they lost their minds having too much fun. I've not heard a record this hyper and this antsy in a long long time. Perhaps channeling their inner pop punker with their inner indie rock slacker, Murdocks create this over-excited melodic wonderland where harmonies and skittish riffs run amok.

Distortionist is a ridiculously good record that's as syrupy sweet as a thirty gallon barrel of maple syrup. The harmonies Murdocks come up with ooze out of every pore on this disc and they sound like like rays of sunshine beaming down on a cloudy day. From the ballad, "Maiden in the Mirror," to the ADHD fueled frenzy of "Die Together," Distortionist rarely slows down or loses focus even when the band screams its lungs out. This is a record designed to brainwash you and it succeeds fifteen times over and for that very reason alone, it's almost impossible not to love Distortionist. They don't make them much more fidgety than this and that's what makes Murdocks so much fun...hyper activity on a rampage.