Mayday - Bushido Karaoke

The West. The great unknown. The gateway to quick riches and none of that city living. Dysentery, caddle, and fools gold. A bastardized ideal that eventually mutates into modern day country music without looking back at the songwriters that forged the path to riches and glory. That is, unless you're Mayday. This album is a tough one to swallow if you find yourself investigating it due to the association with Saddle Creek Records and, more specifically, Cursive. Bushido Karaoke evokes the Old West and the mentality of wide open spaces, storytelling, and the occasional bar brawling good time. The musicianship and instrumentation on this disc is top notch if you're a fan of slide guitar, viola, mandolin, and the occasional horn. Every song seems to reach back to some mostly forgotten genre of music - bar bands ("I'm Not Afraid To Die"), country crooning ("Billy Boy Blues"), geetar pickin' ("Old World New World"), or even the oft-overlooked Western soundtrack ("Father Time"). Okay, so that last one isn't really a forgotten genre but the drum part is undeniably Western. Bushido Karaoke is a bit of a curveball for those expecting some side-project similar to The Good Life, as this bears little to no resemblance to its parent. That doesn't make it bad - in fact, it's probably better at capturing a modernized country sound than the majority of "country" artists out there. So fear not, it's country but it's not Shania Twain or glammed out Garth Brooks - it's great songwriting with instrumentation that your indie rock brain may not be completely prepared for. The country genre has earned itself a bad rap, but this record shows that its possible to be redeemed and redefined. [www.bushidokaraoke.com]