Joe Bradley of Cheeseburger shouts in track one, “I got a funny idea, oh yeah/we’re going to make it real, oh yeah.” Oh Yeah? Oh yeah. Sounding like George Thorogood had The Beastie Boys write and They Might Be Giants produce an album, Cheeseburger’s self-titled debut CD came to me in a genuine high school lunchroom foil “cheeseburger” sleeve and features a picture of someone’s (probably Bradley’s) coin slot peering out of grungy white pants held up by rainbow suspenders. That pretty much says it all.

The CD is 66.6 percent more unadulterated kick ass than anything the Delaware Destroyers ever got to radio. There’s nothing too showy or given to solos about the music, just solid “vocals, beats, and riffs” as the ‘burgers put it themselves. Inter-cut with audio clips of New York City subways and fast food restaurants, and guided by made-for-CD DJ Zack Richards of Z105 (both exist in real world radio, but appear fictional on the CD) the tracks of Cheeseburger never drop the screaming intensity of the band or the cumulative experience of the album. Track four, “Easy Street,” invests its last 50 seconds in disc jockey Zack telling us, “We’re looking at records temps out there. 119 degrees in Central Park, Paramus you can hardly take it at 113…Cheeseburger? How’d that get in the old rotation bin? Well, let’s see how she sounds…” This all leading into the first 10 or so seconds of track five, “Hot Streets.” If you upload this one onto your PC, make sure to make it gapless or you’ll miss the intended faux-radio effect.

There are some interesting breathers, too, even if it’s simply slower screaming. The decelerated 11th track, “Melissa Brown,” won’t prompt any cigarette lighters aloft, but it does add some depth. And breath. Welcome, too, because you’ll need to save your energy for the frenetic “Rats” that immediately follows. What little information you can get about the band on their Myspace page shows at least a group that’s earned their live show creds.

Cheeseburger is a well-engineered studio effort, but given the continuity of each track to track and the message in the first to last track (“Gang’s All Here”) that Joe can no longer “feel my legs,” you know the live experience is going to be at least as intense, unswerving, and chemically altered as this CD. Finishing it off is track 16, “Bobby’s Theme.” Intentionally lo-fi and haltingly a cappella, it gives the impression of a long drunken evening finally ending in collapse. It’s followed by several minutes of dead air setting up the clichéd but somehow still effective hidden track. No music on this one, though, it’s the final farewell of DJ Zack Richards and his plug for the dance club Rowdy P’s in New Jersey just off Exit 14A of The NJ Turnpike. If you’re heading there in your own inebriated fantasy make sure to go on Saturdays for the third floor’s salute to “Dutch Hip-Hop.”

(Kemado Records, 601 West 26th Street, Suite 1175, New York, NY 10001)