Reviews

Six Tonnes De Chair

Cel Ray Piss Park EP

These Chicago punks who share a name with a gross New York deli soda have teamed up with French label Six Tonnes De Chair for their second release. CEL RAY is clearly a band who’ve clomped around in the yolk that oozed out of NWI a decade or so back, but they’ve managed not to track too much goo onto the four tracks that make up this EP. By forgoing the brash cartoonishness of a lot of their contemporaries and balancing their DEVO stiffness with some loose, jazzier sounds closer to the MINUTEMEN, they avoid sounding like the straight CONEHEADS-core that is all too ubiquitous these days. It’s upbeat, energetic punk that reminds me bit of what I love about the pre-hardcore punk that came out of Southern California,  anchored by a strong vocal performance—Maddie Daviss delivers her lyrics about the mundanities of Midwestern living in a cool, deadpan talk-shout that every so often breaks into a full-throated song—with just the right amount of C.C.T.V.-esque jitteriness to give it more of a contemporary post-punk-y edge. Absolutely worth checking out!

Pinch Points Mechanical Injury 12″

Soft garage rock, clean guitars, and sufficient drums. Reissued from 2018, plus a newly-mixed track. Catchy and fun sounds on this 12”, but evidently more on the garage side than with any punk rock features. Fresher than most garage projects, and even has some slight MINUTEMEN references in the instrumental, but the second the voices start to sing, you can tell the tidiness of all this. It’s a bit boring and excessively existentialist, yet very well-executed.

Public Body Ask Me Later / Public Body 7″

Acrobatic and mathy guitars lead the charge on this one, like on a URANIUM CLUB or LANDOWNER rec. Some of the instrumentation and harmonies throughout give off the same sorta inviting weirdo vibe as SUBURBAN LAWNS, which is always a plus. Both songs clock in at 3:36, somehow—whether this was on purpose or (probably) not, the end result is that I want more.

Public Body Flavour of Labour 12″

Tight, energetic, and nervy art-punk out of Brighton. There’s a lot here to like, at least for me—angular guitar lines, whirling new wave synths, an English man spitting lyrics about the alienation of labo(u)r under capitalism. The production (provided by guitarist Theo Verney, who has also recorded the likes of FEET and HOME COUNTIES) is clear and full and serves the material well. Every track on this EP is compelling, but the single “Formica” is a real ripper, chaotic yet expertly held together. “Reset My Password” is another treat, with big hooks and relatable lyrics about having a useless desk job. “Savings, Discounts, and More!” is more of an experimental spoken word piece, which makes me curious as to what else the band can accomplish with a little more breathing room. If you’re into other contemporary UK post-punk acts like SQUID and ROXY GIRLS, you should dig this.

Vision 3D Hypnose LP

Well, I’m a big dumb idiot. I sat on this record for nearly a month before giving it a spin because I was dreading reviewing it. I’d never heard of the band, their name seemed annoyingly generic, and I could easily imagine this cover being slapped on a record I hated. Plus it’s a whole damn LP! That means that I’m going to have to endure eleven songs and 30-plus minutes of music that probably sucks over the course of multiple listens. Except, it doesn’t suck. Not even a little bit. Turns out VISION 3D, a trio out of Toulouse, France, has cobbled together one of the best guitar rock records I’ve heard in a long time, by combining nearly everything I’ve loved about garage punk over the past twenty years. Throughout the record you’ll get snatches of the COUNTRY TEASERS’ detuned cowpoke post-punk, THEE OH SEES’ trebly reverbed-to-hell garage-psych freakouts, the early BLACK LIPS’ “I’ve Got a Knife” attitude, and, for good measure, MAN OR ASTRO-MANS?’s outer space raygun surf. Then that’s all topped with some great multi-tracked vocals that would fit in somewhere among a KLEENEX-ish yelp, the too-cool-for-school contemporary post-punk vocals of the WORLD, and the avant-garage-pop chanson of STEREOLAB or the LIMIÑANAS. Just an absolutely fantastic record put out by a band with an actually fitting name that, in retrospect, has a perfect cover. I wish I’d had an additional month with it.

Warm Drag Butch Things / Your Thunder and Your Lightning 7″

Very good single comprised of two cover songs from this L.A. band. WARM DRAG is made up of vocals and two samplers, but the two tracks here sound like lush, full-band affairs despite having only two members. “Butch Things” is a smoky, post-punk crawl that summons Siouxsie Sioux fronting the BAD SEEDS. “Your Thunder and Your Lightning” brings some darkwave texture with a static-tinged bass pulse and classic reverb-drenched psych guitar. This record hits the sweet spot between familiar and fresh. I want to hear more.