FREELOADER: POINTBREAKDOWN’S LIVE TO GET RAD

Welcome to the latest edition of “Freeloader” in which we review albums that you don’t have to feel like a douche for downloading for free. Today Satan Rosenbloom checks out Live to Get Rad by Pointbreakdown.

The 1991 action flick Point Break was built on incredulousness. The government does not normally infiltrate rings of criminals that rob banks to support their international surfing habits. Trained FBI agents do not jump out of airplanes without parachutes, and when they do, they die. A sassy Lori Petty would never, EVER fall for a zero-dimensional toolbag like Keanu Reeves, and as we all know from his many public battles with drug addiction, Anthony Kiedis can’t actually be killed.

Perhaps the viewing public that made Point Break a box office smash didn’t pick up the film’s inherent ridiculousness, but the millions of people that embrace it as a cult classic must have. Certainly the creators of Point Break Live, a theatrical version of the film that features a different Keanu drawn from the audience during each performance, get it. And Owen Thomas also gets it. He’s the man behind Pointbreakdown, a deathcore project whose every song is based around a dialogue sample from Point Break.

Pointbreakdown’s tongue-in-cheek filtering of disposable pop culture through the sieve of extreme music is nothing new. Mortician have built albums around movie samples since the late 80s, while both ArnoCorps and Austrian Death Machine have long used Arnold Schwarzenegger soundbytes as lyrics. And just a couple weeks ago we were treated to an incredible deathcore cover of that Rebecca Black pabulum “Friday.”

What makes Live to Get Rad different? Absolutely nothing. Granted, the album sounds totally pro, and it’s more varied than it needed to be for what’s essentially a 15-minute joke. But your enjoyment of this album will depend entirely on whether you recognize the phrase “Young, dumb and full of cum,” or have ever told someone “Vaya con dios, brah.” If you’ve never seen the movie, there’s no point in listening. And if you have, you’ll be done after track two.

But hey: Live to Get Rad is free, and that sure is something. Evidently our old friend Bodhi was wrong when he told us “If you want the ultimate, you’ve gotta be willing to pay the ultimate price.”

Get it here.

(3 horns out of 5 up)

-SR