SINN – Jailbait

Tommy Krash’s goal looks to be to live a Rockstar’s life as sleazy, rowdy, decadent, and … and … and tacky as is humanly possible. A recent project of his is formation of the band Sinn with Mick Spacy and Matthew Scott. One quick look at the cover of Sinn’s latest release, Jailbait, reveals Krash’s tackiness to the “nth” degree. In the end, I suppose the cover is completely indicative of the music contained within … so what’s that capitalistic credo again? … Oh yeah, “Buyer Beware!”

Sinn’s moniker on their website is “Rock & Roll From the Gutter.” The problem with Sinn is they try too hard to be outlandish rebels, which takes them over the top on their quest for fan admiration emanating from openly expressed desire to indulge in excessive human pleasures. There are 12 tracks on Jailbait, 11 of them original, and basically each one has the band walking around with a chubby in their trousers on the hunt and trying to bag females of some persuasion … any persuasion … but most often: under-aged school girls. Unfortunately, this common theme in virtually every track gets old pretty quickly.

To their credit, Sinn’s musical sound is actually kind of interesting (notwithstanding Perris Records typical underachieving production quality). Sinn combines the conventional 1980’s Hairband Metal sound with a Punk Rock edge – a la the Sex Pistols. Their sound for all intents and purposes works, and is definitely the highlight of the Jailbait CD. Tainting their impressive sound, alas, is the fact Krash simply won’t SHUT UP! He tries really hard to come across as a defiant, carefree, “if you don’t like it too f*#&ing bad” malcontent, but in the end, he conveys an image of a Johnny Rotten want-to-be, offering very little unique that stands to be admired – tragically, much UNLIKE Rotten. Krash’s ever-present voice is a nasally, whiney cross between Bret Michaels from Poison and the classic rock guru Bob Dylan.

Indicative of most groups of the Hairband vein, Sinn is indeed successful in creating catchy vocal delivery patterns and easy to sing-along-to choruses, but unless you’re in the 14 – 18 age group, I can’t see that you’d WANT to sing along – unless, of course, you’re one of those loser perverts who can only get laid by cruising the under-21 non-alcoholic dance bars!

Yes, Sinn does show signs of musical talent. The first track, “Girl,” is paced by a bass-driven riff that just feels good. The second track, “Stepsister,” is probably the best overall song on the CD, and has a great Garage Band sound to it along with notably catchy lyrics. Third up is a cover of the Poison classic, “Look What the Cat Dragged In.” Sinn adds nothing to this song, and only succeeds in converting the song’s celebratory intent into a sordid, thin-sounding, misguided rendition of this “party all night, feel like shit, then do it again tomorrow and the next day because it’s fun” anthem. Sinn even throws in a decent ballad of sorts via the fifth track, “Find a Way.” The eighth track, “Science Girl,” effectively meshes both lyrics from The Doors AND a Sex Pistols musical style – kind of difficult to do, actually. Lastly of note, though topically deplorable, “Almost 16” musically moves along quite smoothly and impressively.

Overall, this Jailbait CD was a disappointment because Sinn seems to have legitimate potential, but squandered it in favor of tasteless, pre-adolescent, cheap-sex song topics and lyrics. Their Hairband/Punk Metal sound mix is pretty interesting and has a flair of originality to it, and Krash and company show they’re more than two-bit musicians as virtually every song develops an appealing groove that is worth taking notice. Sinn simply needs to grow up. A bit more overt desire subtlety in their lyrics, and allowing the music to stand-alone occasionally, would go a long way towards adding credence to Sinn’s position in the Hard Rock/Heavy Metal genre.

SUBSEQUENT EVENTS: Right after the 1st of the year, Sinn changed its name to Dead Star Factory…your guess is as good as mine as to why! Secondly, Tommy Krash is holding down a second gig by wielding his axe simultaneously with the band American Sugar Bitch.