JULY 2009 ONLINE EDITORIALS

The Mighty Eighteen Wheeler - Stimulus Package

By Erik Myers

On the third track of The Mighty Eighteen Wheeler’s third full-length, Bret Bertholf asserts that he’s living an existence worthy of celluloid. Perhaps he’s commenting on his band’s rock star delusions; that might be the only reasonable explanation behind the Denver’s foursome’s sizable shift in sound. A band once renowned for its salacious purebred rockabilly, Stimulus Package is mostly just hard rock with two extra ingredients: punk bounce and country swagger. It is an experiment of modest success.

Stimulus Package (a great title, considering the double entendre made pointedly clear on the backside of the disc jacket) starts off strong with “This Is Real,” a scrumptious throwback to the band’s earlier years, complete with guitarist Bobby Smith’s supercharged riffage and a golden pop chorus. Following it is the AC/DC buzz of “Native of Nowhere,” then the tightly-spun punk spunk of the aforementioned “I Am the Movie.” Track #4 is “Broken Angel,” a most interesting track in which Bertholf uses his honed hound dog drawl over a shimmery guitar melody. Then there’s the “Paint It Black” cover, an electrified take on an otherwise gloom-and-doom cut, nothing necessarily special but spirited in all the right ways.

At this point, the album seems to have burned out, it’s closing songs just a slag of recycled riffs and treaded-on rock adages. The Mighty Eighteen Wheeler has managed to pull off its facelift with a decent album. Here’s hoping, however, they never entirely ditch their roots.