20092015 - The Monster Women "Murmaids From Mars"

How could I resist checking out an album called "Murmaids From Mars"? I couldn't. Is it any good though? Not really. I must admit I thought this was going to be either surf or garage rock, but although this seems to be done with the best intentions and all the right inspiration (The Shangri-Las and The B-52's are both mentioned on their facebook site), the sound is so tinny, the vocals so bland and the songwriting so poor that it all just sounds completely amateurish. This album is 49 minutes long, which is 50 minutes too much, and feels like ten times as long. The only thing I can imagine worse than listening to the record would be knowing these people and seeing them live. You know that feeling when you see a friend's band and they really suck and you have to stay for the entire gig, knowing that they are going to be really pleased afterwards, and then they ask what you thought, and you try to sound convincing as you murmur some half-assed compliment about how they were "really great!"? Yeah, at least I don't have to do that.