Ethos aside for a minute, Midtown Bootboys' sound is plucked directly from the mold of macho 80's hardcore, like an Agnostic Front cover band, exactly zero innovation, 100% subordinate, and jocundly unaware of their redundancy. It is independantly (Midtown Production) manufactured, so it is not entirely surprising Unfinished Business is weakly (and laughably) produced. As I marvel over how much sounds as if it was recorded in a bathroom - given the inconsistent frequency levels evident on "Tulsa's On Fire" and "Gays Gotta Go" - I realize maybe various bathrooms were involved. Funds squandered no doubt on "alcohol and tattoos", as they so proudly boast on "Life of a Skinhead". But when I realized this is not satire, and these guys are as serious as castration, the common sense portion of my brain kicked in: why expect anything else from such amateur, unprofessional, squarely untalented jocks? The songs are weak, unenergetic and boring, hindered by an apallingly braindead rhythm section and guitar riffs a 9th grader would be embarrased to play in his bedroom. In the political arena, the Bootboys lie somewhere between Pat Buchanan and Baphomet, stirring things up for "wars"; in general, very simpleton, displaying childlike fantasies of heroic battles and illusions of grandeur; promulgation of a net mental capacity which belies their evident age, more suggestive of a perhaps an infant, or at least a mildly retarded teenager. Yet as much as it is an undeniable right to express said sentiments, it is less so admissible in my opinion to fleece money (and minds) with fourth-rate swill like Unfinished Business, a record which pretty blows all around. Sad, really.

Review by Lee Steadham

Review date: 08/1999

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