Get Busy Livin' or Get Busy Dyin'

Get Busy Livin' or Get Busy Dyin' was recorded and mixed by Michael Caglianone at Boston's 7A West Studio and mastered by Colin Decker at M Works in Cambridge, MA.^[6] Although recorded in just two days, the album captures the band's unique sound.^[7] In an interview with Ox-Fanzine, the band describes the songs as being dominated by a strong rockabilly influence.^[8] Studio owner Michael Caglianone sees it as 50's roots rock with a punk twist.^[9] A Boston Phoenix review presents their style as urban jump blues "bolstered by some tough punk attitude" and compares Torr Skoog's vocals to those of a cartoonish Tom Waits,^[10] while Suburban Voice writes of the most tortured throat singing since hardcore punk band Verbal Assault from Newport, RI.^[11] Punk Planet compares his voice to that of Dicky Barrett from the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, accompanied by a band whose sound is somewhere between the Stray Cats and the Brian Setzer Orchestra.^[12] The German punk zine Ox-Fanzine writes that the Kings of Nuthin' offer hard, fast and dirty rock'n'roll in its purest form, which lies somewhere between Stray Cats and The Meteors, and clearly stands out from the broad mass of neo-swing and rockabilly bands.^[13] A second reviewer of the magazine describes the album as "an extremely swinging combination of punk rock from the street, psychobilly and casual, laid-back rhythm & blues"^[3] and for the German magazine Mainstage, the mixture of jazz, swing and rockabilly with street punk is simply a musical insider tip.^[14]