Audio Adrenaline: Some Kind Of Zombie (1997)

Tracks:

1. Chevette
2. New Body
3. Some Kind of Zombie
4. Original Species
5. People Like Me
6. Blitz
7. Lighthouse
8. Flicker
9. God-Shaped Hole
10. Superfriend
11. Some Kind of Zombie (Criscoteque Remix) 

After the success of the Bloom album and tour, things finally seemed to be clicking for Audio Adrenaline as they began to put together material for the follow-up.  It would have been easy to make A Second Bloom, I suppose, and it would have probably been well-received, with the organic "Modern Southern Rock" vibe they had crafted.  But personnel changes would facilitate a shift in style and approach.  The first was a closing of the revolving door that had been spinning behind the drum chair in the form of Ben Cissel, Audio A's first "official" drummer.   Bringing a versatile rock style to the band, Cissel immediately solidified the rhythm section.   The second and more significant changing of the guard was the departure of Barry Blair.  He would contribute to the song "Some Kind of Zombie," the title track of the next disc, but then left the band to focus on his family.  Somewhere in the interim, the band shot photos for the album cover sans Blair, avec Cissel.   Then they picked up a 17-year-old dishwasher from Minneapolis named Tyler Burkum, and the line-up was in place that would produce Some Kind of Zombie.

Three things are apparent with the new changes.  First, the band is rediscovering their love of synths and samples, bringing a trippy techno sound to many of the tracks.  Second, with Burkum, they develop a much harder, noisier guitar sound, with loads of fuzz, feedback, and crunch.  Third, and somewhat paradoxically, the band writes and records most of the basic tracks on acoustic guitars, then piles on the overdubs to fill out the songs.  The result is a decidedly "modern/post-grunge" feel that works for the most part.   

The album kicks of with "Chevette," probably the only song ever dedicated to Chevy's subcompact answer to the Ford Pinto.  Stuart tells an autobiographical story of his preacher dad's brand new but bare-bones '77 hatchback, with "No AC, No FM, and no regrets."  With warped synth licks and screechy guitars, it announces that Bloom has left the building, and Audio A have entered their next phase.  

The title track plays on the timeworn "Resurrection-as-Zombie-Apocalypse" metaphor, which actually works here as the horror trope hadn't saturated pop culture with its rotted ubiquity yet.  And they play up the "mindless slave" rather than "animated corpse" angle, actually drawing from the more historically accurate Haitian Voodoo tradition--with which Stuart, as a missionary kid, had firsthand experience.  The zombie servitude is actually a picture of faithful obedience to the Real Master.  

 "Blitz" was a big single and features the O.C. Supertones bringing a then-hip injection of ska punk energy into the mix.  The story of "fourteen kids in an old church van" and their madcap mission trip to Mexico is fun, including a break in which McGinniss tries to get roadside service for the broken-down heap.  "People Like Me" is probably the closest thing in spirit to Bloom with its happy melody and driving guitars, but the swoopy synth leads take it into another direction.  

The band also shows a softer, deeper side with "Original Species," a rebuttal of Charles Darwin with Stuart proclaiming he's "more enlightened than Nietzsche."  They also draw on the classic image of man's need for God in "God-Shaped Hole."  The album closes with "Superfriend," their fast version of punk rock and by far the hardest thing they'd ever recorded--so hard it made even the band themselves uncomfortable.  I remember seeing them on this tour and when the song came up in the set, Mark was overly cautious about moshers getting too rowdy during its three minutes of mayhem.   

With all the changes, Zombie gathered enough new fans that the band was energized to move forward on their mission: to mobilize techno-rocker zombies into an army of missionary mercenaries bringing the gospel to a brain-dead world.  Or at least, get their sequencers and samplers out of storage and the talented young Mr. Burkum out of that rubber apron.