High Holy Hell this is one helluva massive mammer jammer of musical excellence across thirty three tracks of diverse, driven Rawk. When you look up “Boston sound” in Webster’s dictionary (Which is obviously a thing in ANY dictionary), hopefully Money Fight gets a shout out next to the Bosstones, Dropkick Murphys, and Modern Lovers because, while a mixed batch of genres, the whole of Smells Like Money Fight: The Complete Basement Recordings is inherently Bean Town bravado through and through.
But I digress.
Money Fight is a lost gem in our local scene and when you think about those kinds of finds in our neighborhood, can Dug McCormack’s name be that far behind? That’s right, kids! The man responsible for Psychic Dog, BALUCHITHERIUM, Pony Snot, and more has shared this time capsule of merriment from a time when the words “Zoom call” and “Covid” had no meaning whatsoever. Recorded in 2009 and 2010, Money Fight unites McCormack (On vocals, guitars, and synths) with drummer Adam Smith, bassist and vocalist Kristin Dupre, and Ethan Weiss on vocals and keyboards for a raucous batch of tracks that’s bound to appeal to whatever musical mood you may be in when you press “play”. And sure, we could do an epic track-by-track for the whole thing but a lot of the fun of this beast of a recording is discovering the treasure trove within each of these sexy sonic excursions for yourselves. In conclusion, we’re pickin’ and choosin’.
“Ishmael” starts the whole shebang with a barely two minute ditty that serves as a sonic mood setter complete with struttin’ riffage, organ-type ambiance, and McCormack’s signature bark leadin’ it all like a deranged ringleader. “Bigguns” is shorter and just a super cool instrumental before “Become The Snake- Part I” evolves into a glistening Rawk opus tinged with synths and an uber cool closing roll out driven by Dupre and McCormack’s repeated harmonious refrain.
“Mattress Of Time” is like Devo meets Wall Of Voodoo with some early B-52’s thrown in for good measure while “Like Woman” hands the mic duties over to Dupre whose soulful delivery presents a refreshing dichotomy to McCormack’s Bluesy gruffness. Speaking of bluesy, McCormack goes all in in that department for “You Know Me” and later, “Pants Fuck Pants” gets all spacey/psychedelic from Weiss’ keys with Smith laying out a righteous stomp. “Tryin’ To Care” is all swirly, “Sound The Alarm” is another fab instrumental peeling back layers of this inherent quirkiness and then we get “Space Ship” and all the Tom Waits feels in the vocal department.
Had enough? Well, Money Fight isn’t done yet with almost twenty tracks to go of pure put-a-smile-on-your-face Boston RAWK!
Smells Like Money Fight: The Complete Basement Recordings is out now via House Of Watts Records and is the best collection of local Rawk that you didn’t know you needed today. Get it here. For more from McCormack and company, head here, here, here, here, or here.