Mog Stunt Team: King Of The Retards

The gimmick that put Detroit's Mog Stunt Team on the map is its status as the official musical arm of the National Anti-Tesh Action Society, a group that purports to believe that John Tesh is a dangerous alien. But in the last year or so, MST has done a smart, overdue thing: It's moved further and further away from the Tesh talk, and closer and closer to simply rocking as hard as any band out there. Sure, the dopey "John Tesh is an alien" song that popped up on the group's self-released debut CD (555) is on the new King Of The Retards, but other than that, the remaining 14 tracks are out to do little more than kick your ass. When singer/bassist Ken 5 shouts, "I'm king of the retards / pied piper of all pussies," it's not self-effacing geek-speak. It's a rock moment, there because it sounds cool. Same goes for the covers of Cheap Trick's "Hello There" and Kiss' "Parasite"; Mog Stunt Team isn't about posturing, or preening, or even about the risks associated with exposure to John Tesh. It's about taking a half-hour out of your day to have real, punk-spirited rock driven down your throat. Amen to that.