Hamburger Help Me deliver 22-song 7"

Photo by Kelly Lone

​Music comes in all shapes and sizes. For Hamburger Help Me, it comes it short, aggressive blasts. While their ridiculous name and equally goofy cover art (consisting of several famed Garys) doesn't imply a serious musical approach, the band, featuring three-quarters of the Fuck Yeahs, aims for a full-on aural assault in a twisted, entertaining, and overtly-meta fashion.

With their Awesome Garys EP, the spazz-rock group delivers snippets of varied hardcore drenched in intensity and overdosing on juvenile humor. For the math majors out there, the 22 songs on this 7" complete in about 10 minutes. What makes the band compelling is that, despite the brevity, they explore a number of sounds and avoid the "sameyness" that plagues so many quick-burst bands.

Often beginning songs with a couple simple beats from hitting drumsticks together, the songs are largely influenced by '80s hardcore, featuring 30 rhythms, furious vocals and guitar, and offkey shouts. The songs average fewer than thirty seconds and are spun in a self-aware and aloof direction. There's not much to the lyrics: the band will take an outlandish concept, expand on it slightly, and often just repeat the song title over and over again without taking the time to develop a structure or clever turn of phrase. At times it sounds like snippets rather than a full song, but it's an amusing ten minute romp for the ADD Generation.

Just an FYI, if you're seeking information on this record, be prepared for curious results when googling the phrase "Fart Records."