The Open Casket

Worst Case Scenario (Mortville Records)

In these troubled times, any band capable of waxing a cohesive 12-pack of slobber punk broadsides in just six hours warrants further investigation. Enter the Open Casket, a thrift-driven local trio led by onetime Motard Toby Marsh alongside brothers Chris and Mike Dempsey on bass and drums, respectively. Harnessing the hammer-down swagger of the Dead Boys crossed with a goofball sci-fi/horror aesthetic, Worst Case Scenario skips the groundbreaking in favor of unadulterated exploitation. Opener “Bend Over” finds Marsh seizing the spotlight by bellowing the teenage riot act to a laundry list of haters. “Black & White Fuzz” detours into radioactive William Castle territory before ending prematurely on a genre-bucking fade out. Somewhere between the two-part “Cellar Walls” and “Torture Chamber,” the Casket even manages a garage-minted nod to domesticity on “Happy Anniversary.” When the world is running down, fry up a meatless skillet of Hamburger Helper and crank this until the neighbors blink.

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This article appears in February 13 • 2009.

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Greg Beets was born in Lubbock on the day Richard Nixon was elected president. He has covered music for the Chronicle since 1992, writing about everyone from Roky Erickson to Yanni. Beets has also written for Billboard,Uncut, Blurt, Elmore, and Pop Culture Press. Before his digestive tract cried uncle, he co-published Hey! Hey! Buffet!, an award-winning fanzine about all-you-can-eat buffets.