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| Contactmusic |
 Political rock music is a dangerous path to follow. At its best it can inspire thought and action on a mass level while delivering some kick ass tunes as well (for example Rage Against the Machine), but at its worst, it can seem tired, out dated and lazy, just like The Smashing Pumpkins' Zeitgeist album, or any one of the thousands of pop punk bands who wrote Bush-baiting slabs of vitriol (yes, I'm looking at you Green Day). No Name No Colour comes across as well thought out but not preachy and features some great moments.The album opens with Busy Bein' Born, a slow building track built around a stop-start riff that kicks things off in a brilliantly noisy way, even bringing in a Tom Morello-esque guitar solo. Following this is one of the albums many fast punk styled rockers USA - a song about being a disillusioned American (it seems to be a recurring theme through the album). The album really finds its feet on these noisier songs, like this one as well as Lifelong Dayshift and Thought I Was. For a two piece band these guys sure do make a hell of a lot of noise. Middle Class Rut might not start a fire like RATM once did, but No Name No Colour is a fantastic album with some true gems on it - you could do worse than picking it up....full text |
| Bbc |
| Until this debut full-length from Middle Class Rut, the only hype that had really stuck to the Sacramento pair concerned numerical values. Specifically, were they the two-headed heroes the rock press had so longingly hoped for since pace-setting Canadian duo Death From Above 1979 acrimoniously split in 2006? Pleasingly, No Name No Color is driven by a combative mood more than fit to challenge lazy parallels. Considering No Name... is compiled from several years of writing between kinetic hard touring, the coherency on display is impressive, as is the volume pumped out by a mere brace of noisy souls. Beefing up their sound along a steady series of preceding but, in isolation, somewhat unremarkable EPs, a handful of those tracks are given steroid boosts of muscle here, alongside new tunes. And suddenly it all begins to make more sense. With reverberations – in guitar-slinger Zack Lopez's ethereal vocals at least – of fellow Californian crazies Jane's Addiction, a decent degree of anger bounces off otherworldly echo trails. It propels No Name... along at a fair lick, after insistent opener Busy Bein' Born has slowly revved the pace. Possibly tongue-in-cheek declaration of nationality USA buzzes past, flipping schizophrenically to mild self-loathing on New Low. Lifelong Dayshift is the first real example of venomous potential, though, snarling "Your life / It ain't worth wasting mine on": bitterness flecked with genuine ferocity. MCR (or MC Rut as the band prefers to abbreviate) don't totally condemn minimal personnel limitations to the dustbin throughout, however. A saggy middle section sees to that, Are You on Your Way, Alive or Dead, I Guess You Could Say and Sad to Know all bordering mid-paced interchangeableness....full text |
| Premierguitar |
| MCRut’s debut is one of the few recent releases whose raucous abandon has a serious chance of jolting you out of your chair. But it’s not just about Sean Stockham’s bombastic drums and Zack Lopez’s tattered vocal chords and bristling tones. Lopez (who favors Les Paul Juniors, Oranges, and Marshalls) and Stockham (who also sings via a headset mic) do pack these 12 tracks with attitude and bombast, but it would all be for naught without the dynamic arrangements and the soaring vocal melodies and harmonies—which sound like a cross between Jane’s Addiction, Rage Against the Machine, and the Beastie Boys. “Are You on Your Way” serves up ethereal, delay-soaked leads, taut, subtly dissonant rhythms, and a wistful, ghostly outro, while “Cornbred” has swampy, lo-fi acoustic work, and “New Low” is driven by a tense ticking-time-bomb palm mute, corpulent chords in the chorus, and a quirkily beautiful Whammy solo. Throughout each track, the deft guitar layering somehow sounds airy while busting your chops like a brass knuckle....full text |
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