Chickens

Prepare to Plug In is 13 cottage-rocking tasty little pop punk songs mainly concerning the pleasures of fast cars and rock music. Some of the Chickens used to be in good-time-y Canadian garage heroes UIC, and any hardcore fan of that band will surely want to check out this self-released CD. The crunchy dual guitars are captured nicely on this Dale Morningstar-produced disc, as are Dave Robinson's characteristic vocals. It's easy to compare this to UIC, but shades of vintage Teenage Head and even the Cynics come through here on this crisp and cohesive album. Highlights include opener "Chicken Ride," a classic-sounding rocker about driving with the "top down," and "Somethings Wrong," which is one of the more '60s sounding tracks with an ultra-catchy chorus and some organ to boot. Most of the songs here are upbeat, melodic party tracks that are best exemplified by the double shot of "25 Years" and "Super Bee," yet another nod to rock and roll and cruising around with the music loud. One of the most quirky songs here, "White Squirrel Town" is an indictment of Toronto as a cold, heartless place. This song will surely go down in history, if only for its reference to the (until now) unsung enclave of albino squirrels that inhabit the grounds of the Queen Street Mental Health Centre.