Twice As Good As You - Johnny Casino’s Easy Action

Label:	Kadillac Records
Released:	1999
Tracks:	Teenage Head Take It From Me Shufflin’ The Decks Your Smile’s Gone Away What I’d Say Little Doll

Rating: 2/5

Despite the superlative liner notes, “your probably patting yourself on the back for acquiring such a hot disc”, this CD is actually rather disappointing. Johnny Casino’s Easy Action was a band recently put together by Asteroid B-612’s guitarist Johnny Spittles while he was residing in Philidelphia. The band may have only rehearsed for two weeks before cutting this record, which explains the ramshackle nature of many of the songs but really these songs aren’t up to the high standard I would expect from Johnny Spittles. The band manage a strong cover of the Flamin’ Groovies classic Teenage Head and there is one good original, Take It From Me but apart from that, Twice As Good As You is pretty ordinary. Shufflin’ The Decks is an instrumental that has its moments but overdoses on the theremin and frankly at over 7 minutes long, quickly outlives its welcome. Your Smile’s Gone Away is a surprisingly sincere song but is let down by some poor vocals. This is in fact one of the main drawbacks of this album. Lead vocalist, the Cosmic Commander just doesn’t have a strong enough voice. The other major drawback is a lack of good original songs. Really, the only thing that saves this release is Johnny Spittles guitar work.

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