Ladies get your tampons ready because Chicago glam punks Mickey are back in action. If you missed Mickey’s opening set for Wild Flag this summer, let’s just say there were a few feminine missiles launched in the band members’ general direction by the middle of their set. All that aside, the men of Mickey wage an all-out assault on the crowd with their retro punk sound and sweet leather jackets and faces caked with pancake foundation and glitter. You don’t want to miss it. But you might want to stand toward the back.
Mickey- Rock ‘n’ Roll Dreamer
Release date: 2011Jun07
Label: Hozac Records
Rating: 3.5/5
Mickey hail from Chicago and their sound is similar to that of the New York Dolls, T.Rex, Dead Boys and other similar bands. “Dance” starts things off as an anthem that has a strong 1970s street punk feel to it. “Summer Night” is much the same as the lead singer does his best to imitate the swagger of David Johansen. Other highlights include “Rock and Roll Dreamer”, “Bright Lights”, “Kids Crazy In Love”, “Dream With Me” and “Baby We’re Gold”. This is a very fun record and one of the few vinyl reviews that I’ve done. It’s a great release if you like garage rock and early-mid 70s punk!
FCC: 1,
Try: 1,2,4,5, 9, 10
Either that or I was too busy wondering if, even mid-set, they’d outshined the headliner. On almost any given bill an upset in the Husseins’ favor could be feasible. But the feverish Mac Blackout (Mark McKenzie), frontman for Chicago foursome Mickey, wouldn’t let that happen.
Back for a second stint after April’s Mess-Around, the group’s second coming seemed highly anticipated. Unfortunately, however, the turnout was most shallow for Mickey—even Black Lodge had more listeners, although many were friends of the band.
Regardless, Mickey played as though it was their final performance, steaming with energy and sweating from the get-go. McKenzie displayed a naturally manic intensity that’s altogether ageless. Let’s hope the fresh-faced Husseins were watching.
Mickey is a rabid throwback to ’50s rock ‘n’ roll, with a little weirdo glam here and there. One shirtless player wore a wig that, from afar, looked like a bunch of blue-grey bananas atop his head. The band ripped through their mostly fast-paced repertoire while McKenzie plowed through the audience, knocking down a guy with a cane at one point. But he picked him right back up, palmed the fellow’s head and shouted gargled lyrics right in his face.
I missed one band at this year’s Mess-Around, and it was Mickey. I thought I’d kicked myself enough over it, but after seeing McKenzie—an irresistible, albeit dirty, crazy-eyed frontman bringing the band’s energy to a point, I deserve another punt. And for the hordes of folks who typically turn out for punk shows but bailed this time, you missed out.
A little bit o’ lo-fi, a little bit o’ glam rock, a smidge o’ theatricality, and a lotta chutzpah make for some interesting listening here. They love their rock with hooks and ain’t ashamed to aim for the fences. Gotta respect that.
After two stellar singles on HoZac and Florida’s Dying and a 12-inch EP on FDH, HoZac steps up and spreads some sleaze on the summer with the debut full-length from Chicago’s street-glam rockers - Mickey! The world may not be ready for the sweat-stained concoction Mickey has served up on this platter - whiffs of glam, punk, glitter, and straight-up pop music permeated with the scent of leather, roses, PBR & sex oil. It’s not all fistfights and raunch from these guys, there’s a sweeter side to songs like ‘Baby We’re Gold’ and ‘For You’ that contrast with finger-snapping rockers like ‘Dance’ and ‘Scream With Me’ all of which ride a delicate line between sincere and trite lyrical and musical sentiments. We hear elements of ‘Killers’-era Alice Cooper, T.Rex, Gary Glitter, The Sweet, and Berlin Brats - all that sweet/sour R’n’R that pre-dates the recklessness and danger of punk, but still retains some of the showmanship and debauchery of Glam rock! These guys are tearing up the Chicago scene - rocking clubs hard and leaving a trail of blown speakers and broken mics in their wake - as with the whole of HoZac releases, this comes RECOMMENDED!
still-single:
Just like how bubonic plague resurfaces every few years to kill a few unlucky people, only to grow dormant again, some folks think that a perfectly lucid way to spend their time would be to start a new glam band. I don’t think it’s a case of glam being resilient but I do think that there are a lot of unoriginal assholes cluttering up what would otherwise be a pretty nice cosmos. As for Mickey’s turn in the bucket – it’s hard for me to imagine music worse than this: Maybe (maybe) if I was wealthy and had billions upon billions of dollars at my disposal, I could hire hundreds of Ph.D’s in lab coats, working around the clock with flow charts and Tesla coils, toiling for decades in the spirit of spitting-on-your-hands-and-doing-it-for-America, coupled with the finely-tuned logistics and resources of something approaching the Manhattan Project, all working for one united goal: to make a record sucks more than Rock ‘n’ Roll Dreamer, it still might fall short. But I’ll save everyone’s time: these clowns tried for hooky and catchy, but ended up with something insipid and annoying. Its songs go beyond boring into painfully playacted, irritating and arch. Imagine being invited to a party, and when you get there, you’re stripped naked and thrown into a pit of Fiberglass insulation. That’s what listening to this band is like.
And hey: I like glam rock. I even watched Born To Boogie with minimal fast forwarding, but this reminds me of those metal bands that were influenced by punk and glam but ended up being those Sunset Strip atrocities. I figure this is exactly the record these creeps wanted to make: criminally stupid lyrics, a cover that looks like an eighth grader with a wisp of a moustache and a denim vest drew on his Trapper Keeper, and a general aura of stunted development. It you like your music sans intellect, cleverness, ambition, without even the most basic interesting or novel elements, and/or get your nostalgia receptors tickled at the thought of the Rainbo’s jukebox in 1984, then this record might be for you. You deserve each other.
I basically say that every record is my favorite of the year, but I probably mean it on this one. Out on Hozac, nothing but bangers, electric live show, these dudes are ridiculous. They’re getting a ton of pub around here and deservedly so. Album’s awesome.
I usually have an adverse reaction to 80s music and that which evokes its sound, but I can’t help but be smitten with Rock N’ Roll Dreamer. It’s glam-punk, yet also 50s kitsch. Though it harkens back to previous eras, as (let’s face it) every band does, there’s something inexplicably fresh about Mickey’s release.
For Mickey, their first album brings a nostalgic sound that will make you want push people, ride a skateboard and make out with your honey, instantaneously. Songs like “My Lady” and “Kids Crazy in Love” have tones that evoke spontaneity and sour sweetness.
The crunchy guitar sound throughout the album, but prominently featured on “Bright Lights,” shows what’s been missing in my post 90s music collection –risky metal-esque guitar riffs. Mac Blackout’s vocals on these tracks maintain an unhinged quality, but with control over that unhinged-ness, kind of like Brody Dalle of The Distillers. In no song is this more apparent than “Dream With Me,” in which he crescendos into some awesome rebel calls.
It would be nice to hear more of a range on this LP, since a lot of the songs meld into each other. The other issue with this album is that it ends too soon, but nonetheless, Rock N’ Roll Dreamer is simply a fun record. End of story.
9 Golden Eggs
Top Tracks: “Bright Lights,” “Dream With Me,” “Baby We’re Gold
They’re crude, they’re blunt. There are no hidden meanings in Mickey’s lyrics, and when he says he wants to suck your nipple, you best believe it’s exactly what his intentions are. It’s this no-holds-barred approach that is so intoxicating about Mickey. No frills, just straight up raw rock n’ roll that lends a new meaning to the word catchy. Rock n’ Roll Dreamer is glam rock—an era of careless, frivolous fun. Mickey deftly weaves us between different panes of their glam rock psychosis, where each song is a carefree, riotous anthem, and not a single note or line is out of place. Make no mistake; every stroke of genius on this album is totally deliberate. Mickey lays it on thick. Had they misstepped, this album could have sounded like a horrible parody of Twisted Sister; instead, they’ve smartly pulled out all the stops and created an album that calls to mind the carefree days where sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll were the only pressing priorities to attend to. The album features a good balance with a medley of love songs (“For You”, “She’s So Crazy”) coupled with some badass rock n’ roll whammies such as the title track. Mickey encapsulates the spirit of rock n’ roll effortlessly, and when the album’s over, it’s quite the surprise to find out that I am still indeed in the year 2011.
swamivisions:
Mac Blackout sneered and shook his way through a twenty minute set, sweating through two layers of clothing until he ended up shirtless and bellowing like a bat-shit crazy, young Belushi. Whereas the frontman of Chicago degenerates, Mickey, sounds like a snotty, but thoughtful dreamer on wax - on stage he seems way more like the type to break your nose before stealing your chick (and probably your car).
(photo) (photo) (photo)
Following a lead like Blackout, you’d think the rest of Mickey would be out of sight and out of mind. Luckily for the audience attending the Layabout’s 4th of July party, this was not the fucking case. And it wasn’t because the five piece were caged in an area that was literally half the size of a teenager’s bedroom. No, the other four synced their chords in perfectly-timed sleaze, playing up glam-trodden dramatics so immediate they’d be impossible to rehearse.
Mickey is a band not to be missed, if not for their live antics, for their initial get-up alone. Dressed like mismatched street kids from varying Walter Hill flicks, the band is a hodgepodge of metal, punk, glam and trash that would probably be a running joke if they didn’t back this look with a strong enough testament to make any naysayer eat his words. And if someone in the audience happened to hear such a remark on a night like this, you could probably also count on his teeth.
There is a point toward the end of “Dream With Me” where Mickey frontman Mac Blackout — the Chicago glam-trash quintet has no shortage of excellent stage names — changes the first word of the song’s title to “scream,” and lets out a shriek that would terrify Jason Voorhees. And that right there is an apt summation of Mickey’s appeal, both live and on record: unhinged madness, torn T-shirts and flying graffiti. Rock’n Roll Dreamer, their debut full-length following a pair singles and an EP, slickens the band’s grimy pop, but only slightly, letting every danceable seduction and lonely, lovelorn thought fly loose while Marc Bolan’s ghost nods approvingly in the shadows. Its 10 tracks positively whizz by in just under a half hour, and Blackout’s final words are all too worrying in their prescience: “Baby we’re gold / but they’ll never know.
If it’s any indication of the rest of Rock’ n Roll Dreamer, prepare yourself for shockingly clean, yet gracefully trashy glam perfection, equipped with a stutter.
Debut long-player from MICKEY is here! In the forefront of glam-tastic hard rockin’, MICKEY has taken its share of lumps from those afraid to venture from the safe fuzz of lo-fidelity rock. In their own way, Chicago’s MICKEY boldly stands alone, waiting for you to chant along!
