Album Details

• Artist: Pepperdome
• Album: Chaos Point
• Label: self-released
• Year of Release: 2011
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: patchen on 2011-01-25

For Pepperdome's third release, John Tokarczyk continues his drive to prove that drummers can step out on their own, lead a solid band and not sound like Ginger Baker's failures. "Chaos Point" is a decent romp through hard/alt-rock, with quirky, if not memorable, lyrics and certainly enough passion to prove they mean it.

As you might expect with a drummer behind the wheel, it is the rhythm section that remains consistently hammering and inventive. The guitar lines range from the Jittery ("Flesh") to color added to a heavy bass-riff ("Chaos Point") to slightly abstract ("Break," "Everybody Tells Me"). The lyrics? Well, Pepperdome are victim to the same traps fallen into by most bands that misinterpret Frank Zappa or Primus: goofy is not the same as eccentric, silly is not adventurous. It doesn't help that these lyrics are delivered by a vocalist whose range is somewhere between Danny Elfman and Fred Schneider.

"Chaos Point" is not so much a reflection of chaos as schizophrenia. Is this a prog band with a penchant for interesting hooks and fat rhythm section? Or is it a joke band with only one gag and it was cool for a second with Oingo Boingo, then again maybe not? As an instrumental band, Pepperdome takes chances and most of their risks pay off. They are undermined by lyrics and vocals that try too hard to be weird, and are just not working.

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