DESCRIPTION:
Rik has a solo project.

No, I’m not talking about his other deal, Rik & The Pigs; that stuff’s old news. For what was originally conceived as a one-man rock band with no real presence outside of a Rikki’s dingy bedroom, Rik & The Pigs has since blossomed into a full-on band composed of numerous reputable musicians who, thanks to both modern advancements in technology and a notable increase in notoriety, now (likely) record their rock music in slightly bigger bedrooms. But, unfortunately, statistics have begun to show that most punks aren’t particularly keen on spending five bucks just to watch pseudo-dads play pseudo-dad rock in their pseudo-adult-sized Pampers. Rik needed to start back at square one, if not momentarily; hence the formation of his brand-new solo project, simply self-titled as “Rik” – as Rik made sure to clarify for my stupid ass, it’s “just Rik, no pigs”. So, with the debut of his first solo record (released today by his brother’s label, Lumpy Records), what does Rik do with his newfound creative freedom? He plays more rock and roll music. Groundbreaking. But don’t get me wrong; this eponymous record is still very GOOD rock and roll music. While not serving to be a major diversion in pace or tone from his preceding Pigs project, with the music still being fixated on goofy, hammed-up rock ‘n’ roll riffage harbored somewhere within the vast canyon separating punk and blues, there’s definitely a discernable gravitation towards the latter influence in “Baked Transformer”. Perhaps not so much in side A of this EP, as the causticity, cadence, and intensity of the first two songs are, arguably, geared more towards punk than anything, but side B is where I consider the brunt of the poppy, stylized experimentation to take place. Sure, “Baby’s From The Future” may feature an expanded percussion section, and the dual-guitar harmonies in “Nothing New” do scream good, old-fashioned rock and roll, but nothing sates my cravings for corny, mushy pop better than the melodies found within “Electric” and “Dear Rikky” – the former especially. I’ve only had these records on my computer for about a day now, and while I don’t know EXACTLY what it is that sets Rik apart from Rik from his Pigs and makes this 7” truly special, I do know that I thoroughly enjoyed this goofy little number.

I don’t know if these’ll get put up for sale on Lumpy’s online shop, but I’ll be sure to add a link for purchase below if they do.

TRACK LIST:
Baby’s From The Future – 0:00
Nothing New – 2:21
Dear Rikky – 4:04
Electric – 5:43

SUPPORT: http://spottedrace.bigcartel.com/product/rik-and-the-pigs-7
DOWNLOAD: http://www.mediafire.com/file/4o4zh35ztw3l963/Baked_Transformer.zip