Taken as a whole, The Bambi Slam’s Is… EP sounds like your average underground 80’s punk band. But upon hearing the first few seconds of the first cut, “Bamp-Bamp,” you will quickly discover this is not the case. For this particular release, Bambi Slam member Roy Feldon decided to employ the cello as a punk rock instrument. Weird? Yep. Effective? You bet.

The cello is not used as the primary instrument; that is still the guitar’s sacred title. The cello instead serves as a space-filler, injecting short catchy melodic lines  at the end of a phrase or during the bridge. The best examples of TBS’s cello use are on songs such as “Don’t It Make You Feel…” and “The Awful Flute Song.” It’s a nice touch to a record that is often so loud that no matter what system you play it through or at what volume you play it the sound will get distorted.

Two songs of the six on Is… stand out above the rest. “Hit Me With Your Hairbrush” is the most aggressive song on the album, and hearkens back to the early days of punk when the Ramones and Sex Pistols reigned supreme. “The Awful Flute Song” is my second favorite cut, as it brings together the acoustic guitars of “Fun & Roses” and the buzz-saw electric guitars and pop sensibilities of “Don’t It Make You Feel…”

On the whole, The Bambi Slam is raw, loud and angry. It’s your average punk band, just with a cello. Sure, the cello could be seen as a gimmicky novelty (they dropped the cello for their full length album released the following year), but its incorporation never seems forced or overpowering.

After listening through the EP, it is apparent that TBS are following a formula, albeit a seldom used formula. But hey, if AC/DC can make a decades-spanning career out of three chords…

-ZS