By Keith Walsh
Fairly priced on major streaming services, MindFree’s second album Stardust avoids the sophomore slump with the smart move of deleting the keyboardist, leaving more space for vocalist/guitarist Mark Abbruzzese’s tiny pedal board. Like the famous rock alien and Vegas hotel of the title track, the band’s obsession with commerciality is represented by much bravado, trippy chorused guitar sounds, sweaty club-land passion, and a willingness to play chord progressions of their musical heroes (“Superstition,” “Whiskey In The Jar,” and “Kronos.”)

There’s no more of the synth bass that allowed the band to be a tight trio of drums, keyboards, and guitar vocals while playing clubs. The dramatic organ and electric piano riffs are missing. Gone are the bad jokes, free pizzas, and secret backrubs. In their place, more shimmering, flanged, chorused and distorted guitars. Some of the poppiness is missing, but there’s a punkier edge on songs like “Steve McQueen” and “Baby Vampires.”

It’s not easy to make an album like this, when the club scene is out in Los Angeles, and seasoned musicians are juggling jobs and loves, no longer in their young and hungry years when they’re paying dues. Kudos to Abbruzzese and team (Vince Insalaco on guitar, Ric Rosario on drums, and Curtis Ortega on bass) for taking the high road, the bus, the train, the uber or skateboard –whatever works. CD Rios may have played bass on some tracks, it’s not clear. He may have played everything — Rios and Bernard Purdie have never been seen together in the same room. Like The Knack after their stellar second album, MindFree aren’t doing interviews and details on the recording are hard to find.

The jelly-spined anthem of desire “AngelFace” shows a willingness to experiment with a song about obsession; “Searching For America” is an American psych rock track about Christopher Columbus’ journey to East Asia, ending up at Boardner’s in Hollywood for gin and tonics, fries and Mac and Cheese. “Baby Vampires” is a cute goth rock track with one of those guitar modes invented by The Abro around the same time Al Gore created the internet. “Navigation,” like the GPS device, required lots of data manipulation, in this case to handle the many waves of guitar frequencies.

“Steve McQueen” is a fast paced tribute to punk rock and the film hero, while “Kronos” approaches the territory of myth and space travel. “Storm of Bats” is just under one minute, a quick little rager, while “Whiskey In The Jar” captures the old Irish classic that Thin Lizzy made popular in the 70s. “Superstition” has that cool Stevie Wonder groove and thumping disco rock drums. The album ends as many dramatic works end, with a German language piece, in this case it’s “Saugling Vampir,” or “Baby Vampires” once again, which makes sense since the 1922 and 1979 films “Nosferatu” originated in Germany. Abbruzzese spent time studying anthropology in Germany in the 90s, so you can be sure when he serves up some Saurebraten with Kölsch brew, it comes from his heart.

The ‘Surreal Moment’ Of MINDFREE’S Debut Album: With Mark Abbruzzese – PunkRockBeat.com
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