The album cover is homage to Black Sabbath’s Vol. 4 but instead of Ozzy Osbourne extending his hands, it’s a cat. Or at least I think it’s a cat. Nonetheless, Bunnygrunt are here with what some are calling their 4th or 5th album, but Vol. 4 (Happy Happy Birthday To Me) shows what it can take for a band to completely rock your face off, even if the sound quality is not superior compared with others or it’s that sharp.
Is the music as raw as The Mummies or something recorded on a cassette, not quite. It sounds like a nicely made demo where things aren’t tweaked to perfection but those things help give the music a bit of grit, or something like that. The majority of the songs are about three minutes, if not less (some very less) but there’s one song, “Chunt Bump”, that runs at 7:02. It comes off like the Sonic Youth song that features Lee Ranaldo where you want to separate everything and pay attention to that one song. However, by doing that, you also focus on the remaining 15 songs that are true scorchers. Songs go back and forth between male and female vocals but when you hear the harmonies of both, it works with brilliant perfection. The cool thing is that as raw as these songs sound, full of garage rock power, there is no mistaking what they’ll sound like in a nightclub. You’ll want to hear stuff like this louder and in your gut. There are occasional odd glimpses of slight weirdness, such as the ragtime feel of “Tonight You Belong To Me” but then it gets back into the blooodiness of band who rip up their instruments without regret. Even during songs that may remind some of the charmful pop of The Partridge Family (as you may hear in “1000% Not Creepy (Weepop Version)”), you’ll play another song and it will feel like busting out the crevice of your noise full of acne. It’s that fun and just when they group will make you want to rip your eyes out and eat it, they revert into a delicate corner of the room and get slyly delicate to play with your emotions. By the end, you want to experience the unique musical changes again.
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