This Beef is not the Dutch reggae band nor does it have anything to do with the British Energy Efficiency Federation. This Beef comes from upstate New York and may explain why the British let us go in the first place. It is rude, crude, loud, and lots of fun in a sick sort of way.

There are four albums available from Gay Tastee’s Upstate Wasted web site. Frankly two of the albums are not very good. But the other two gets things together and gives you a bit of a country punk roller coaster ride.

Stink, Stank, Stunk starts with a hard metal/punk number called “Food and Punk Boy Scout”. It a good but typical barrage of sounds guaranteed to burn out a few brain cells. This is the type of rock you crave in a dirty juke joint with unwashed glasses of warm beer. Once the electric sounds start to burn you out, Beef moves to acoustic on “Nicole Kidman” I prefer the faux “hillbilly” sounds which continues on “Nitrous”. Some people might be offended by the crude lyrics but I like the satiric poetry of it all.

Drinking in a Drunk Tank, Drunk in a Think Tank is better. The instrumental “Ass, Gas or Grass” moves Beef past the three chord songs on the first albums even if the titles remain a bit sophmorphic. The band is also settling firmly into psychobilly, sometimes sounding a little like The Cramps and other times leaning to the country punk of The Drive-By Truckers. Again, my favorite tracks leans to the country tinged songs like “Mountain Music”, “Native Brook Trout” and “Town Car”. Of the ear busters, I especially like “Superflu”. Beef will never be confused with the first or second ranked rock bands, but I do like their “F— the World” attitude and their rock and roll energy comes through loud and clear.

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Stank, Stank, Stunk
Thinking in a Drunk Tank, Drunk in a Think Tank