Mikey Erg - Heart Shaped 12''

Mikey Erg is about to musically fuck your face, as he has just musically freaked mine. I decided to go with the term freaked for the latter half of the sentence, because I feel as though two fucks in one sentence in a little too intense. Especially as the first line of the review. Mikey Erg (Mike Yannich) is basically some pop punk warlord, or maybe dalai lama, for those opposed to violence. He played drumed and sung for The Ergs (some Phil Collins shit right there. The band didn't sound like Genesis or anything, just the whole singing drummer thing, you know?), and has been in like every other band in the world. Seriously, I can list what I know and still come short. Psyched to Die, Dopamines, The Measure [SA], House Boat, Short Attention, and I know he had some duo band with some chick and they played in Cinci with the Dopamines but I forget, this was forever ago and I was standing outside must of it because it was hot as fuck and the Hungry House was small.

Basically, Mikey plays every instrument, and thankfully decided to hit us with an album where he plays every instrument, rather than just an acoustic only release. I wouldn't be opposed to anything he put out though. I saw him do acoustic at Fest 9 and it was pretty rad, and he covered Fuck You by Cee-lo, and everyone was stoked.

Paper + Plastick must love us, because they recently started vending Mikey's first solo 12'', Heart Shaped. It's only two songs, so you don't have to pay attention to me for too long, but the two songs are definitely worth the purchase, you should definitely get all three color choices, unless they're sold out...which they might be. These two songs are what you'd expect from the man being The Ergs, because they're infectious and awesome as hell. Something that I guess I should say, even though I don't think it really needs to be said, is that these songs aren't really anything out of the ordinary for Erg. The first one sounds like songs I've heard by the Ergs, and the second one only differs by the fact that it's acoustic.

Mikey's voice is one that no matter what band he shows up singing in, you know it's him immediately. It's kind of like when you here Jeff Rosenstock or Max Bemis, or whoever fits your genre's voice, and you can tell it's them no matter what. Erg's voice is kind of nasally, and definitely angsty, and definitely goes perfect with most of his love sick songs about being dumped or being ignored by a girl he likes or whatever else he writes about. I think it's awesome that he did all of the instrumental work for this one. He's a very capable guitarist and drummer, definitely surpasses a lot of the people in the genre at both, and can drum while singing. Which I think is technically impossible or something. You can pick up this 12'' from Paper + Plastick and enjoy it as much as everyone else in the world will if they give it a chance.

Sealed with a kiss,
Idle

P.S. What the hell kind of sign off is that?

P.P.S. The first song "Key of C, Fix It, Fix It, Stop It" is so fucking catchy and will stay in your head for centuries. Do it. Listen to it.

P.P.P.S. The vinyl is shaped like a fucking heart. And super limited...