Song of the Week: Motor Mouth

"Motor Mouth"
Sugarbomb
from the album "Bully" (RCA, 2001)

Sugarbomb were a group from Fort Worth, Texas, who were kind-of like a cross between Fountains of Wayne and Sugar Ray -- power pop with crunchy guitars, tongues usually in their cheek, and not afraid to put a little bit of rap into their mish-mash of styles. They released one independent album, one major-label album (containing re-recordings of several tracks from the independent album), and -- as far as I can determine -- nothing since then.

This song is one of the more raucous numbers you'll find on their album "Bully", and one of the most interesting to listen to. It reminds the listener of influences ranging from The Beach Boys to Kid Rock; if you can imagine Queen and Frank Zappa getting together to cover a song by Limp Bizkit, it might sound something like this. As I've mentioned before, I normally don't like rap, but it seems a totally natural part of this song, and not the least bit annoying.

The rest of the album is just as tuneful and enjoyable, and is totally rap-free (not that it wouldn't be enjoyable if it did have rap). It's too bad there aren't more albums by these guys to enjoy.