What is a great demo made of? Great songs, of course. Easy Mickey's Sacred is such a tape. Sacred is nine very solid cuts that display this York, PA band's depth and dedication to their craft. Easy Mickey is Mick Moppin (vocals), F. Michael Guerrini (guitar), Deuce Gibb (guitar), Buggs (bass) and Mark "Missile" Mathias (drums). Their music is laden with addictive hooks and bluesy, sleazy attitude.
The tape opens with "Soul Desire," one of the band's better live songs and a great way to introduce Easy Mickey's music. "Soul Desire" is reminiscent of The Cult's early work with its darkly fluid chops and Moppin's vocal portamento. These qualities are the trademark of Easy Mickey's most powerful tracks. The mix is superbly engineered (courtesy of Raisin Brain's David Cornwell), and "Soul Desire" contains one of the most uniquely punchy bass guitar sounds I've ever heard. You may also notice Moppin's tendency to hang just below perfect pitch, a habit which adds an emotional facet as much as it annoys.
A few songs into the demo, "Westside" begins with heavyweight guitar work and breaks into short, bright choruses of "Oh my, Westside" that give the song dimension and listenability. This is the first track on the tape that hints to Easy Mickey's versatility in style. Following tunes do offer more chordal levity, but it works best in "Westside."
Next class track: "Is Nothing Sacred?" Definitely the tape's darkest and overall best cut, "Is Nothing Sacred?" travels back to days of Black Sabbath with its monstrous guitar thunder and religious lyrical overtones, but maintains its originality beautifully simply by the presence of Moppin's vocal style and the band's ability to fit a new mold around it. I'd be interested to learn what inspired the song, especially the bridge of "Don't let our music die."
As the demo opens in style, it also closes in style with "Monkey See Monkey Do." The hooks in this one are a perfect mixture of funk, blues and lots of Easy Mickey. The band is tight, the breaks are quick and cool, and Moppin even seems to have a little more fun here. They couldn't have ended it better.