Two members of the late band The Causey Way took the ashes of their old act, put them into an airplane-shaped urn, and through the power of some twisted magic came up with Pilot Scott Tracy. The duo follows a theme of air travel, from the title of the album to the opening and closing tracks, and the band members. Scott Cox-Stanton is the pilot for this flight, and Tracy Cox-Stanton is the stewardess. Not flight attendant.

While fans of Causey know what to expect here, the grinding music with the wailing lyrics are somewhat hard to convey in words. It sounds a little bit like the Polysics, a little bit like Tiny Tim, and a little bit like that good punk band you knew from back home that really should have made it but didn't. But more than anything else, it sounds original.

While this is a brand-new band, supposedly, it sounds a lot like some of the works of Causey. Both the new and old band have a sense of humor about their sundry subjects, but this time, it doesn't seem as we're in on the joke as much. "Hollywood" is a ballad to the destruction of the town of the same name, and the simplistic lyrics leave one wondering if they just needed words to go with the heavy synth-and-guitar driven act or if they're trying to appeal to the demographic that thinks a city in California needs to be burned to cinders.

Despite a few tracks that border on preachy, this too-short album has a few choice gems. The blippy "Jules and Jean and Juliette" makes good use of keyboards and other special effects to churn out a song that doesn't quite sound like anything else I've heard as of late, and "Junkie Junkie" manages to do the same, but with particularly amusing lyrics to boot.

While clocking in at about 20 minutes, it still doesn't seem that it outstays its welcome. Fans of Causey should enjoy this, and Scott and Tracy manage to make some most excellent and super-noisy synth-driven rock. As this is on a small label that's only distributed online, or so it seems, some might not find it worth the effort to track it down. If you have the means and the drive, though, be sure that you take Flight 0713. Then you too can "bow down to the head ham."

--Adam Pawlus
October 13, 2003