great music did you get my myspace message?

The album’s opener, “The Bastard Child of The Prodigal Son,” hits you like a crushing wave of rock that crashes into the shore and rolls back only to crash even harder yet. Each pounding riff is piled atop heavy layers of grooves that keep your fists clenched and your head bopping. As “Prodigal Son” comes to a tight crescendo close, it gives way to the first of many surprises on this album. A street sample of cooing Oakland prostitutes begging for business opens “Power Drill,” which kicks into high gear and offers a satirical take on corporate clichés and officespeak. The prostitute sample is a fitting segue into a song of corporate whoring that spotlights the clever, quick-witted and observant songwriting of Soul Broker’s vocalist/lyricist Mike Billings. “Open up your mind, step out of the box,” Billings begs. The album never relents, and as “Prodigal Son” leads into the existentially doomful “Wolf,” we hear a range of influences, from rock’s heyday bands like Metallica and Stone Temple Pilots, to early innovators like the Beatles, to something that is entirely original and pledges allegiance to no flag, denomination, culture or origin. The band touts itself as the “United Nations of Rock,” with five members comprising Native American, Mexican, Jewish, African American, and Irish heritages. Despite their differences, Soul Broker is united under the common cause of making rock good again. This new hard rock sound will transcend the “flavor-of-the-week” mentality and one-hit wonderdom that has invaded popular music. “Soul For Sale” is just the first of a slew of Bay Area offerings that will ignite hard rock and ensure a long-lasting run of great musicality, thought-provoking innovation and good old-fashioned heavy rock & roll. This music is everything that corporate rock is not—and because of that, it will be around for a long time.