Bert Susanka

Onward Christian Slater

Cornerstone RAS

(Bert Susanka MySpace)

It seems appropriate that The Pier reviews Bert Susanka’s new album, Onward Christian Slater. My reasoning behind this is as follows. Almost all the bands that will be or are featured on The Pier will most certainly be influenced by Sublime and in a complete 360 degrees of course Brad/Sublime was heavily influenced by Bert/The Ziggens. So here we are. Makes sense?

So how much does a Burt Susanka solo album differ from a Ziggens album? Short answer: not much. Backed by an array of talented musicians, Onward Christian Slater, continues to feature some killer surf rock instrumentals, humorous alternative pop tracks and my favorite – the more mellow and sensitive Susanka songs. After listening to previous Ziggens albums it always made me want to go surfing. Onward Christian Slater does the same, yet it also has a couple of tracks about fishing too. It seems I’ll be spending a full day at the beach now. Man I love fishing. Anyway back to the review.

With legendary producer Rob Perez onboard, he attempts to capture Bert's typical diverse song ideas and somehow put them on album in a way that they sort of fit together. I don’t know if they exactly succeed, but who really cares when an album is this much fun. Each track certainly has its own identity and I guess that’s the real genius of Mr Susanka. One minute you will be laughing along with the unwanted Houseguest, then the next deeply evaluating your own friendships as you take in Let’s Go Fishing.

It's no secret that Bert Susanka is no slouch with the guitar, but there is no one better at writing and delivering beautiful vocal melodies that are both inspiring and heartbreaking at the same time, just take a listen to The Vicissitudes of Life and So Many Tears.

It may be harder to get all the Ziggens together these days to perform and record, but we are fortunate that Bert still has found the time to share some songs with us. As with all Ziggens albums, Bert has delivered another that is sometimes thoughtful and sometimes fun, with a few nice surprises along the way.

Reviewed by Pilipo