Milwaukee rock outfit, The Delta Routine by and large have the art of vintage blues-punk down to a specific science. Science being the key word, and the variable being the assortment of objects of attraction that are lead singer/songwriter Nick Amadeus' muses. From "Donna", who earned herself a full album title in 2007, on out to the apparently too much for the senses "Felicia" - the singer caricatures himself as somewhat snaky and philandering, but who ultimately isn't doing anybody any harm, and whose barbed and upbeat "letter to her" compositions are voyeuristically engrossing.
Just as surely as men, being very visually stimulated creatures, will easily obsess and design requiems for whatever beautiful female creature rubs that penchant the right way, women are just as much to blame for making themselves routinely inviting of it - as much as they might claim otherwise. Amadeus' charm is in exploiting both sides of that catch 22 by playing both victim and perpetrator simultaneously. "Last Night's Fable" on their cheeky newest effort More About You, draws a smirking picture of this, as Amadeus belts out his story of a one night stand he drunkenly lures to his apartment, copulates with, and then quickly forgets about. She "wants some more", but, as he warns: "Don't you come on back to my apartment / Cause I'll never know you came!" The uptight women's libber sort would claim that kind of content is brutish and womanizing - but honestly, it's the she in the song that really enjoyed herself - he was too drunk to remember it!
So, you take Amadeus' sharply good humored, but still doggedly wanton, lyrics (sung in sandy voiced shouts that make him sound remarkably like Smash Mouth singer Steve Harwell), and add that to the The Delta Routine's free styled punkish blues rockery - and you've got a very likable, testosterone fueled, but no less charming, band of guys anyone with a light hearted sense of self can jam to.
The Delta Routine recognizes that this brand of rock has been around a long time - long enough to be tagged as somewhat cliche - but even with most of its creative spectrum pretty well explored, the band plays interesting little games with production on their recordings that throw the whole thing off kilter just a little bit. They take a tactfully light touch approach to it, however, that keeps their albums from crossing the line between slightly abstract to just plain bizarre. Donna's "My, My" is a prime showcase: a fuzzed out, descending chord God Ween Satan era nod to Ween, wherein the mix echoes out Amadeus's vocals at the end of each line, while drummer Kyle Ciske slams fills across the wall, waiting for the verses to rebuild. It's the kind of shit you get high and put your ear to the speaker just to tweek out to, or drunkenly try to mimic. There's just nothing that isn't fucking fun about listening to The Delta Routine.
There are limited moments when the band does take it down a notch. Like on More About You's "Nothing You Can Do". It's jarringly mellow in comparison to the bulk of the group's arsenal: a semi-moody number about a bitter, long overdue break up in the thick of its final death throes. Just when you think the band is all business in this one, they bring it back up, and Amadeus bites at her with: "You sit upon your throne today / Take hearts that you just throw away - you'd probably eat your own kid..." Such a venomous fuck off, like "yeah, bitch, I said it!" - and it's there you're assured that even in their most sensitive and pained moments, they're still humorously snide; and that's about as much for wounded retort you're likely to get from them. Amadeus will go down fighting and snarling before he let's you break his heart.
The Delta Routine's been active for quite awhile, and you'd expect a group with two full length albums, and a somewhat rare find 6-song EP, under its belt would normally show a marked evolution in form from earliest work to latest - but with them that isn't the case. They seem to have perfected their trademark sound right from the get-go (though the self-titled EP offers less playful production), and have been carrying that on with collectable continuity. They're hardly a band in stasis, though, and even if they were, there'd be no disappointment in that. The Delta Routine is a group whose output meets your expectations just by holding up to them consistently every time.
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