Too Many Cooks
Waste of Space
Roundhouse - 2001

by Burgs
6/12/2001

At last the long awaited debut Waste Of Space EP is finally out and it sure has made me excited.

I'll start off with the artwork. A great eye catching collage of various pictures of chefs being violent. It's different and quite amusing.

First track on Too Many Cooks is The Story Of Gerrard Banks. It begins with a short sample talking about reggae then straight into the bass intro. First thing I noticed was how good the recording quality on this CD is, well worth all the money they put into it. This track features some top sounding backing vocals and is very catchy reminds me of The Aquabats at times.

Next up is my personal fave Long Road Home. This has always been one of my favorite tracks live and is just as good recorded! The addition of trombone in this song from Matt Four Feet Away sounds great. After a few listens to this song you won't be able to stop singing along.

Another sample now about leaving the shitty planet of Earth and it leads us into the song Earth Sucks which is rarely played live anymore so it's good to hear it again. Once again catchy sing along parts but I think some of the horn lines in this song don't go too well with the music, humorous lyrics make this one a winner though.

Waste of Space punk things up a bit with the song Too Serious. There's so much great guitar work I can hear on this track that I've never really noticed live. Possibly the best breakdown ever for a ska band in this song with some great brass harmonies.

Here comes the BOOM! An older track Indecision is next in line and a few changes have been made to it since the Place Your Bets demo EP. Another punker tune with some sing along gang vocals in the chorus and good use of the two vocalists in parts like the pre-chorus.

An intro sample from the film Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (I think) is followed by the crowd favorite Place Your Bets. It's a bit slower on CD than it is is live but still a great tune that switches from punk to ska to metal all in the space of just over 2 minutes.

Last listed track on the EP is Piece. A very Blue Meanies-ish track that starts off with a jazzy/bluesy intro and then kicks into another punk track. This track probably has the best lyrics of any of the songs on Too Many Cooks as they actually deliver a message rather than singing about stupid stuff, not that there's anything wrong with that though.

Now if you skip ahead a track and then search forward about 7 minutes (I think) on the 8th track there's one more treat in store! WoS have recorded their hardcore joke song punkest band in Karinyup. Sounds very Limp Bizkit-ish in the breakdown and is a funny way to finish off this EP.

Too Many Cooks definitely receives Burgs' seal of approval and is one of my all time favorite Perth releases.