Beat Blvd. is Heard Mentality's weekly review of local releases. If
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Charles Mansion
Admittedly it's been a few months since this Fullerton band's debut album saw the light–we can be sometimes overwhelmed by the releases we have to hand. But some things can be worth the wait, because just the sheer pleasure of hearing a rollicking glam-rock drum beat kicking things off on “Jacket & Tie”–as well as the kind of full-bodied guitar crunch that should go with it–is sometimes just what the doctor ordered, and it kicks off Charles Mansion's Ready to Kill wonderfully.
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Little surprise perhaps that the drummer and one of the singer-guitarists are brothers Jason and Corey Kaiser; they seem to have the kind of sixth sense one would want in a band that makes it living playing out as often as they can. This said, Ready to Kill isn't the sign of a breath of fresh air so much as it is a bit of familiar and fun attitude with a bit of spiky edge–they're a good-time bar band at heart, but that can put a lot of things together in one place, like how the title track turns from '60s R&B to roaring noise on a dime.
