Wadge have always been shaken like a ragdoll by the tsunami of whimsy, the spectre of Hawaiian shirts, tiki bars and generally cringeworthy wackiness detracting mightily from any genuine appeal lurking in their otherwise reassuringly orthodox drum-machine flurry – that's just the shit you have to content with when, at 4am, you decide your idea for a painfully specific theme band is the funniest ever and has infinitely more staying power than all the other painfully specific theme bands in the world.Perhaps the most high profile of releases on J Randall's Grindcore Karaoke (and the only one so far to get a physical release, through Bovine Records), by merit of already having frustrated optimists over two previous full-lengths and a bunch of splits with bands who don't feel the need to open with the 'Haiwai Five-O' theme. Unless you proudly own MOD's 'Surfin' MOD' and stick it on every night while shooting pineapple juice out of your nose with barely restrained mirth, you'll be delighted to know 'Grindcore Lu'au' tones down the gimmickry considerably on the actual music (the art and lyrics are business as usual, which is fine) with only the odd burst of tooting 'hold, please' woodwind to distinguish a satisfying slab of genuinely furious and fist-pumpingly robust Napalm-esque crust grind as otherwise being the product of a diseased mind.
That said, the tock-tock-tock-percussion assisted riffing on 'Lost Kingdom of the Menehune' is brilliant. Aloha!
Nice review, although just to let you know some of the other Grindcore Karaoke releases will also have a physical version also.
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