Asa Brebner's Best No Money Can Buy CD is a rock and roller getting a bit subdued, making country sounds more predominant in his repertoire. "The Roses I Never Bought You" is low key for sure, but things get even more obsessive as Brebner spins yarns about extinguishing those in his way from the ominous "Reasons for Murder" to "You Stole My Woman" ("now you're gonna die"). For those wanting more of the underground rock that made I Walk the Streets such a delight, you'd better be ready to change with an artist's vision. Brebner takes simple rock riffs and makes them complex, breathing new life into the cliché, most of the recording created with Neighborhoods/Paul Westerberg guitarist David Minehan and label owner Loreen Hurley. These partners in crime help the one-time guitarist for Robin Lane & the Chartbusters build an album that can be called his Beggar's Banquet. Marilyn Monroe's famous skirt blowing over the subway is in a photo on the cover, above the artist's head, and he narrates tough country & western themes with his patented rock & roll edge. "Forbidden Love" is beautiful in its almost innocence after the bitter three tunes that precede it: "You're the mother of his children/There'd be so much hell to pay," his voice vacillating from a serious Iggy Pop to ambivalent Tom Petty. "Too Many Assholes" is the first of the real rockers, taking ex-bandmate Jonathan Richman's classic "Pablo Picasso" to the extreme, but the album goes back to its country bent with "Break My Own Heart" which is unsettling. "Won't Wait for Saturday" is another about face, back to rock, and it is great rock, the most solid riff on the record, sentiment borrowed from the Easybeats' "Friday on My Mind" and Richman's "New Bank Teller." "Nice to Me" is another driving rocker, this one the only tune recorded with Ducky Carlisle, and it could have come right out of the Beggar's Banquet or I Walk the Streets outtakes with sexist comments galore. This is the stuff Brebner does best, down and dirty rock & roll, and as good as "Out of the Frying Pan (Into Desire)" is, its country slant is too disruptive, and the album would be better served splitting the rockers from the honky tonk. "Go Downtown" is more Rolling Stones by way of the Nervous Eaters, making this a truly "Jekyll & Hyde" album, the two sides of Asa Brebner. The title track brings things to a close, and it is saddled with Steve Sadler's banjo. Good material that goes back and forth from mellow to manic. While John Cate and the Swinging Steaks are crafting their roots sounds, Brebner takes a decidedly different path; musical and ambitious, its best moments are when it lets its hair down to rock.