Album Notes

Rise of The Pink Flamingos" CD Review By Scotty Badfish

If Harry Belafonte and the Bosstones were to have an illicit lovechild, except the resulting birth came out as a flesh-eating zombie with a boner, then you kind of get the idea of what Johnny Cakes and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypso’s debut album, ‘The Rise of the Pink Flamingos,’ is all about.

Much like their live show, ‘Pink Flamingos’ is a loud, fun and horny adventure that explores the band’s inebriated infatuation with donkeys, zombies and performing lewd acts on Barbara Bush – all predicated on the notion that an army of bloodthirsty flamingos hopped up on mutant shrimp will soon overthrow the civilized world. This after all, is a South Florida ska band with enough members to field an entire baseball team that have animated alter egos with an affection for marmalade and a cadre of dancers wielding jellyfish-shaped umbrellas.

The album kicks off with the steel-drum-heavy track ‘Swimming in the Summer,’ a tropical tongue twister which sets the tone for the rest of the album. That tone of being akin to lying in a hammock on a Caribbean beach while whacked out on PCP and tequila. "We had a really fun time recording the album," said lead singer Michael "Ostrich" Middlebrooks, "and I think that will be evident to anyone who listens to the album." From there, ‘Flamingos’ features two tracks, ‘The Donkey Song’ and ‘Commando,’ that allow the rhythm section, particularly the well-populated horn section, to shine and remind audiences that despite the lyrical content, the band is more than a series of fart jokes. "We try to make good music without taking ourselves too seriously" said Middlebrooks. Other highlights of the album include ‘Super Black Death Cloud,’ a dark, night-of-the-living-dead epic that slowly builds from a fluted intro into a full-out, chainsaw-wielding thrash-skanking and a moonstomp-inducing cover of the calypso classic ‘Jump in the Line.’