Jim Breuer And The Loud & Rowdy – Songs From The Garage – Album Review

Source // louder.com // Jim Breuer

Comedy albums. How many good ones can you honestly recall? Spinal Tap, Bad News, Tenacious D, Steel Panther….anything featuring Brian Posehn may spring to mind and while comedy and hard rock/heavy metal are hardly strangers – let’s face it, metal is fuckin’ ridiculously over the top funny when you really think about it – it’s hard to balance the two effectively. Well, step into the arena Mr Jim Breuer, your audience awaits!

Known for his stint on Saturday Night Live in the mid to late 90’s and for starring in the cult hit Half Baked, Jim Breuer is mostly known to metal fans for his spot-on James Hetfield impressions (among many others) and his allegiance to all things METAL. It seems inevitable then that Jim and his loud and rowdy compadres have finally released their debut full-length album, Songs From The Garage.

Surprisingly, the expected bone-headed comedy is noticeably absent on opener “Thrash”, a hymn to that most beloved of metal sub-genres and Breuer puts in a cracking vocal performance highly reminiscent of Annihilator’s Jeff Waters. Aside from an ‘Ozzy and Sharon’ interlude providing the funnies, “Thrash” is a catchy-as-hell mid-tempo stomper and fine way to kick off the album.

The kind of schizoid vocals initially expected then pop up on “Raising Teenage Girls”, an autobiographical 80’s metal stomp through the perils of parenting. It’s all backed up by some impressive riffing and soloing by Rob Caggiano – the ex-Anthrax, current Volbeat man providing the production and the musicality to this project – and it becomes obvious that Songs From The Garage is no mere piss take, these guys mean business!

“My Rock n Roll Dream” and “Mr Rock n Roll” features the legendary tones of one Brian Johnson, with Jim and the flat-capped wearing one delivering the kind of rip-roaring, hell-raising hard rock boogie that AC/DC themselves would be proud of. Fundamentally faithful, full of integrity and a blatant heart-on-sleeve appreciation for the music, the comedy is jettisoned further in favour of some balls-to-the-wall hard rockin’ action. In fact, there’s some truly satisfying chug and shred action to satisfy the hardened metaller to be found here – “Old School” and “Wannabe” particularly stimulate those neck muscles – and enough comedic wordplay, built around the lifelong trials and tribulations of being a metalhead, to keep you smiling and head-banging throughout.

With an obvious love for Metallica, Megadeth, Annihilator and the classic bands that started it all (Ozzy, Accept, AC/DC, Priest, Scorpions), Songs From the Garage is a paean to the last 40 years of heavy metal. Hell, album closer “The Unexplained” is arguably better than anything Metallica have released in the last 20 years(!) and proves there’s real legs in this comedy-metal lark.

Jim Breuer loves heavy metal. He lives it, breathes it and mocks it with 100% affection. Return that love people, this old-school warrior now deserves to be loved as much for his music as his comedy! 8/10