SCANNER
SCANNER “Just A Hint Of Mayhem”
By Dr. Abner Mality
Pittsburgh’s spooky rockers SCANNER return with their latest EP. This band has been active for decades and deserves respect for that alone, but they also know how to write catchy rock and roll. On their latest effort, the punk aspects of the band seem to recede a bit, giving way to an almost shockabilly-meets-Americana sound. But fear not, because the SCANNER trademarks mostly remain.
“Roky, Where Are You?” is an obvious tribute to the 13th FLOOR ELEVATORS madman and is a slow burn with plenty of build-up until it finally cuts loose with some jamming rawk guitar. You can already detect some of the more roots rock influence on this tune. “Big Brother” gives me a bit of a SOCIAL DISTORTION feel and has a cool old school guitar solo to finish things off. “Me And The Ghost” is the standout track on the EP and has a spooky, ethereal kind of feel to its straight-up hard rocking. The vocal lines and lyrics are great and the solo is again outstanding. The EP finishes up with a rockabilly cover of CASH’s “Ring of Fire”, which has to be one of the most covered songs in the universe. So much so that even a faithful version like this sounds a little tired.
These guys love their EPs and really seem to prefer them to long-players. At some point, I’d like to see them delve into a longer release and touch on all facets of their sound from punk to Americana.