How To Make A Monster by The Rebel Set came out just about a month ago on Burger Records. I picked up a copy of the cassette and it has accompanied me on my 60 mile round-trip commute ever since. Drenched in a garage-y reverb with a subtle distortion in the vocal track, Phoenix band’s music is highly infectious and features a heavy dose of surf-punk.
Burger puts out a lot of cassettes — several each month in fact. In my aging years, I’m becoming a bit more selective about what I like and what I don’t. Of the releases I pick up from them, I’d say there’s about a 50/50 chance of it becoming a regular play vs. hitting the shelf. How To Make A Monster is in the former camp, and likely will remain there for quite a while.
That being said, The Rebel Set has created a great driving record. In my opinion, that’s the great thing about cassette culture: get yourself an older car with a tape deck and some gritty albums like How To Make A Monster and disregard the modern world of iPads plugged into your car stereo. This is the way to go, and it’s bands like The Rebel Set that make it all worthwhile.
Check out the opening track to their recent album below and head over to a href=”http://rebelset.bandcamp.com/” target=”_blank”>The Rebel Set’s bandcamp page to listen to the full LP. Recommended favorites include: “Ghost Writer” (opening track on the side II), “Back In Town” and “Old Heart”.