Local Pittsburgh musician, Alaskan Bull Worm, is a performer who wears their influences on their sleeve and thankfully those influences are vast enough to never bog down their second album, “Dad, I’m Gay” with too much of the same thing. It’s rare that one song leads into one that feels the same and it shows Bull Worm to be a surprisingly versatile musician, going from the Electro Dance stylings of the title track to Metal to Industrial Rock we even get a Die Antwoord-esque rap song (album stealer, “Neck Breaker.”)
If the album title wasn’t clear Bull Worm never takes things too seriously on the album and while that might be turn off for some the fun atmosphere leads to a breezy feeling that lends itself well to the absurd comedic places the album occasionally goes. Whether it’s a song about a robot with a dildo hand (“Machine Man”) or a lamented love song sung by an Orc (“Rambuzel’s Truth”) Bull Worm proves adept at making the absurd compelling.
The one song on the album that will be most likely to attract attention is the, frankly titled, “Trans Bathroom” which takes one of the most recent political issues and deftly mocks the absurdity of the whole argument by laying out a menacing track where the song’s protagonist worries about the “evils” of transsexuals while ignoring the real evil that he is perpetrating. It might be the most nuanced song on the album and proves that the best is still yet to come for the young Bull Worm.
All in all, “Dad, I’m Gay” is a technically sound and hilarious effort from Alaskan Bull Worm and solidifies the singer as an artist on the rise. The album releases this Friday, June 17th, so go check it you won’t be disappointed!
You can find Alaskan Bull Worm at
https://www.facebook.com/bighairyandpink/