There's a new label out of Christiansburg, VA, ...actually maybe the only record label out of Christiansburg, it's Flannel Gurl Records run by Jonathan & Kimmi, a little less than a year old already with a handfull of releases including this single from Buck Gooter which is the first time the band has released anything on vinyl. A duo of guitar and drum machine/electronics, it's the best kind of punk, experimental noise chaos.
Take the A-Side live track, "Devil Worship" which has that thin, fuck-the-drums repetitive loop running under a mess of distorted snake guitar work from Terry who along with Brat are yelling through a shitty house PA about...you guessed it, devil worship. You can hear the audience yelling along with them, there's no regular melody, this is based in pure expression. I will always hold something like this up a little higher than a commercially successful band who is making a living. You could almost make the theoretical 7" argument that if they're doing something that popular it's suspect by default. The motives behind it can too easily have to do with something other than the music itself. Buck Gooter exorcizes all the jaded marketing PR emails away. If these guys are at the Little Grill in Harrisonburg, VA then there's still hope for new music and frankly for the country as a whole. It's hard to overlook the massive strip mall that can be the US sometimes...but let's not get sidetracked, (red states, GWB) this is the sound of hope, a complete dirty, live mess of inspiration that resulted in wreckage physically and mentally in the form of an electronic theremin breakdown solo or maybe that was just manipulated feedback from a tiny guitar. A tree falling in the forest of VA. The only downside to this recording is that it feels too far removed, like you're standing way at the back of the room, or outside...I want to be right up in the middle of this...but maybe that's just because we couldn't handle it yet.
The B-Side, "Fife and drum" is a dining room recording of a heavy bass stomping drum track and classic riff rock echo guitar repeating a fist pumping anthem melody. All drums with a skeleton of rock, it's an awesome combination of that ballsy '70s almost metal with the freeform electronics of the days of Butthole Surfers, Ministry or Skinny Puppy...(you know those guys weren't ever thinking about the future, it's insanely dated and impossible to listen to, but you wouldn't get to the state of things today without it, it's an important overlooked era...where's the 33 1/3 book?) So here's this new line of thinking in obvious synth sounding electronics against the a classic rock sound. They want to go to the highway of hell, taking the exit off dystopian future bladerunner highway. Finally we come to a fitting end to the single and Buck's take on existence... a completely delayed out a capella blues track, "Echoes from a Lonely Tomb", it's layers of serious controlled heartfelt singing with yelps and screams just under the surface, all the stages of grief at once. A single 4/4 kick beat keeping time, they are willing to go anywhere, given the right effect...they don't even have a plan for this, this was overlooked, recorded too late/early in the morning and only months later did they realize it's worthy of the seven inch. That's a feat in and of itself.
They would also like to remind you that snakes are cool as artwork, but I don't see a single snake anywhere on this sleeve...lots of liner notes on the reverse which helps to set the scene of the crime further and are as important as the recording itself
I'd wish these guys luck but with their dark lord pressing record they don't need my help, they are also coming to Death by Audio on January 20th.
You can hear this and Flannel Gurls latest on their bandcamp page and pick this single up for $7 from Flannel Gurl. No multinational corporations will receive any percentage. Occupy seven inch! (Not 7inches, I don't have the room)
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