Cool the picture inside the album has a sign reading the bands name but below that is a listing for the next show, which featured Thunderbirds Are Now! and Bear vs. Shark—both of which have been featured here. Small world I suppose. Invoking what Monster Magnet tried to do, Five Fifty is here to bring back the ‘70s psychedelic hard rock movement that Kyuss and others tried to do a few years back. Released on the start-up independent label Exhaust Records, “Get Clean” is a must for after a full listen you feel like you’re completely dirty with dirt under your nails even. They even go the route of stoner rock occasionally but they always have a great hook right around the corner to keep things interesting.
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The mix and production is some of the best I have heard from a self-produced album on an independent label. Each instrument is clearly audible and exceptionally well balanced on their respective tracks. The guitars sound thick and heavy without sounding too doomy, the sometimes overwhelming guitar noise does not swallow up the drums and vocals. It is apparent that the album was well thought through, with intros, outros, and a good placement choice of their songs.

Five Fifty’s influences range greatly across a lot of bands form the early-mid 90’s rock scene in America. Sometimes you’ll hear Monster Magnet fused with typical Detroit rock; the vocals come across as more grungy or typical NYC art rock from the late ‘70’s. The album is very riff orientated. I would even go as far as relating a couple of tracks (“I’m Sorry” and “Running Away”) to the desert stoner scene sound of the early ‘90’s. I could not recommend an individual song that represents this album as a whole - just listen to the whole thing and let it sink in for a while.
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Five Fifty sometimes sounds a lot like Monster Magnet, which should be plenty good reason to love them. Anyone who plays ‘70s-style hard rock and metal with a thick, greasy layer of psychedelia has something going for them. That’s not all this Lansing rock band does, of course. Hard rock may be their milieu, but the songs on their new album, Get Clean, have everything from art rock to New Wave.
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Get Clean, the full-length debut by Five Fifty, shows off the band's gritty, catchy hooks, led by Lee Sjoberg, anchored by large-scale guitar leads courtesy of Ed Reyes.
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