Diarrhea Planet – I’m Rich Beyond Your Wildest Dreams
Infinity Cat Recordings
August 20, 2013

What It Sounds Like:  Just ridiculousness.  This six-piece comes wielding four guitarists, along with bass and drums (of course!), for a mash of glam metal shredding, rock and roll popping, and full speed ahead garage punking.  Give credit where credit is due:  their website describes them as The Ramones holding Van Halen hostage with an arsenal of fireworks and explosives.  I wish I would have come up with that first, because whatever comes to your mind, it’s probably pretty spot on.

Casey, Jordan, Brent, Mike, Emmett, and Evan.

Imagine six friends getting together with the intent of just playing loud freaking music.  Not noise, but just balls-to-the-wall rock n roll, with an overload of guitars and walls of amps.  I’ve seen this band live twice, and it looks like nothing more than that:  a group of friends having the time of their lives, blazing nutty and unnecessary (but totally enjoyable) solos and chugging power chord after power chord.  They make banter with each other.  They make banter with the crowd.  The girls up front laugh and adjust their ripped leggings.  Lead singer Hodan Dickie probably stands there and murmurs to himself, “I can’t believe people keep coming to see us play this stuff…”

But people do keep coming.

And they should keep coming.

Because this is fun music.

Put away your politics and school and friendship problems and weight issues and bank account statements and divorce and marriage and jealousy and everything in between.

Let’s just have some fun.  I’m Rich Beyond Your Wildest Dreams is the perfect slogan for this band.  Who’s having a better time than these guys?

I’ll be the first to admit that I was actually expecting a rowdier outing than what we find on their two thousand thirteen release, but when I really think about it, I’m glad it isn’t wilder than what it is.  Oh, it’s packed with energy and power and noise and sound, don’t get me wrong, but there’s actually melody here.  There are small bits of restraint that keep them from blasting into another galaxy where all this would just be unreachable and unattainable.  Field Of Dreams, Ugliest Son, and sure-fire single Separations are compact rock songs with plenty of pop synthetics to fall easy on the ear.  Then again, it’s hard to go wrong with an opener like Lite Dream:  it starts off with a slow building wall of guitars, before opening up the throttle into a full-on on punk jam, before closing into a free-for-all rock and roll extravaganza.   It’s fantastic!   White Girls (Student Of The Blues, Part 1) dabbles in sing-along indie garage rock with a straight 80s glam lead line.  Finally, I simply must mention – there’s something about the buried-at-track-eleven Babyhead that puts a huge smile on my face, with its strings of oh-ah-oh-ohs and group vocals shouting the title all through the finale, even when the song barely breaks the two minute mark.

The production is certainly enough to sound more than listenable, but it’s another positive checkmark to hear that this record wasn’t overproduced – there’s no extra bells or whistles, or smoothing of the guitar lines.  It’s the sound of six dudes playing in a circular room, mics all around to capture the action, and put to tape.

Obviously it wasn’t done exactly like that, but you get the idea.

Those that need an exact verse/chorus structure need not apply, nor anyone who simply just doesn’t want to let loose.  You simply cannot look at I’m Rich Beyond Your Wildest Dreams too seriously, even though this is without a doubt a serious band.  You need to put this record on, tell yourself “let’s have fun”, and hit play – while throwing all other thoughts out the window.  All other avenues will end with you hitting a wall.  It’s well worth your time to loose yourself in this free-wielding rocking n roll record.

7.5/10

If you had to listen to two tracks:  Lite Dream / Seperations