I like Wasted and 40. These teo songs here are great listening to, with a bottle of some German weiss or several pints of Grolsch. Seen him live numerous times. I was "son of a bush" several times at shows myself. Jim is a really cool guy. I can't wait to hear his third album.
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I am the drummer who played on both Tough Guys, and Big Bully cds, as well as our old friend Gus Meza on Bass. Be sure to look for the third installment as The Genral descends upon your neighborhood, drinks your beer, and fights off the son of a Bush !
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To look at 'em, guitarist/vocalist Jim Patton and his buddies are as unhip and motley a combo as you've ever seen,
but those are superficial concerns when considering whether a band can deliver the rock n' roll goods; ZZ Top never won any beauty pageants, either. This band recalls that combo in its blues-rock intensity and musical chops, though it replaces the Texas twang with a rootsy, Midwestern pop-rock sensibility that powers blue-collar anthems such as "Wasted" ("Let's get wasted, come on let's get wasted all night long") and "Fixture" ("I got my rock n' roll Ph.d at a bar that's next to me/And I should have graduated by now"). It might not be rocket science, but it does deliver a propulsive kick. 
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Genral Patton and his Privates are about their neighborhood, bars, haunts and what their hard pop says and does with it. 
A quick lyrical run through this disc leaves you with the impression that these guys have 9-5 or graveyard jobs, who, after a burrito and some trash T.V., will help save the world like Superman by 1) kicking the neighborhood bully's butt because they care, and 2)jamming rock's liberation at their local bar.
Musically, they are all over the place, refreshingly so, the songs' styles are diverse. Twilight falls heavy, Groove tinges blues, Wasted pulls a slow steady draught out of the tap. Half the songs are about drinking. Not crying in your beer, but laughing with it. To these soldiers, the pain of reality is for people who can't handle the joys of alcohol. Then, they throw a line at you like Water's drifting: (I finally realized, I'm just a Water Sign, I was born a Cancer in the middle of July).
You notice other clever things: In the incestuous Gypsy, the Munsters theme riffs through what can only be a family of inbred monsters. Aye, I am high replaces aiee, yay, yay, yay for Arturo's. And if you don't watch out, you'll learn a little music theory in Seven, which nicely closes the album. And it's a good album...one that will strike you immediately with performance, then later with content, again and again and again...Strong hard pop with sense of place and a chaser. 
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