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****************************************************************** With song titles like "You're a Fucking Dick", "Busted, Broke & American", and "All Out of Bubblegum", you would think that M.O.D. — shorthand for Method of Destruction — and their founder and fearless leader (the artist formerly known as the Legendary Billy Milano), aren't masking their intentions on their new album. In fact, it would be a logical assumption that Milano and co. are putting their unabashed and unedited thoughts and feelings out there for all to see and hear with their new album Busted, Broke, and American — self-righteous and politically correct social justice warriors be damned!
As to be expected, Busted, Broke & American is fast, it's furious, and it makes no apologies. It also mixes hardcore, punk rock, and thrash and the end result is a thoroughly combustible collection of songs. The words "I'm sorry" are not a part of the album's vocabulary. At the center of the sonic storm remains Milano, who has never been known to shy away from speaking his mind.
Billy Milano, a voracious reader, avid cook and a Proud and Loud Republican, inadvertently resurrected his hardcore punk rock band in a time when he needed it most. You'd be mistaken to assume anything when it comes to Billy Milano. For M.O.D. and their new album, which finds the band returning to original label home Megaforce Records after two decades, there was no pre-determined mission. At all.
It was born of love.
"I had taken off time with M.O.D. in 2009," Milano recalls. "We had done 100 shows for [2007's] Red, White & Screwed. I needed a break. My dog Buster, an American bulldog, got sick with cancer and I started to play guitar again while staying home with him. I started jamming again, anticipating something quick, but it wasn't."
Buster was a huge part of Milano's life, having toured with the frontman. As anyone that truly has forged a deep bond with a canine can relate to, Milano turned to his trusted instrument to help him endure the pain of watching his friend wind down his life. "I just started playing guitar, while sitting there, looking at him, giving him medicine," he says. "I wanted to run and play with my dog, and I couldn't. The only way to be with him was to sit there and play guitar. I had no goal to do a record. I just wrote all the material."
'I've never been happy with the falsehood of the music industry," he says. "I am a street, a real guy. I am not a 'keep it real' guy. I had no goal to get back to the industry." But he's is and he's armed with an album that demands to be heard.
While Milano may be older and wiser these days, he's not any softer. He's admittedly still cynical, but has learned to temper it by being more caring and forgiving. Still, music remains something he loves doing And he still operates off the zero fucks given principle. "I don't give a fuck, but I like playing," he reasons. "I like making records. It's like cooking — it's an extension of me. If I do it as a job, I am going to fucking hate it." So he proceeded with Busted, Broke & American without ever treating it like it was a job and the album is devoid of any and all pretense.
Busted, Broke, & American is an album that will resonate. "Here I am, in my '50s and a grandfather, and I wrote the best record of my career," Milano exclaims. "A someone who has always done what I want to do, I had no intentions of doing what I did with this." Indeed, the album is a balls-out, hardcore x punk rock accident.
The album also points out harsh realities. "Music gets convoluted with movements," Milano notes. "I don't want to go up there and be someone's sword and if you want to talk to me and gain insight, I am happy to give it. My music reflects life. It's merely subject matter and it's what's in front of you. It's not the message or the messenger. If I stand in a field and stare, I will see what's in front of me. What's behind me is different. If it's behind me, how can I reflect on it? If I stare at something, I can form an opinion. I can bring it to the forefront." And that's just what he does with his latest sonic warhead.
Busted, Broke & American is raw and honest. It may also be M.O.D.'s final full length, according to Milano.
But just like he wasn't thinking too far into the future while writing the album, he's focusing on the present and the music he has just made. All he really wants is the fans to hear the new album, which he dubs "simple, fast, furious, hardcore punk music."
In fact, Milano is also proud of the fact that the album embodies a quote that Agnostic Front guitarist Vinnie Stigma has been saying since the '80s. "If you ain't hardcore punk, you ain't shit."
Busted, Broke, and American is hardcore punk and it is indeed the shit.
