Friday, September 19, 2014

TV Freaks - Leeches 7" on Hosehead records


TV Freaks seem to be excelling at their own brand of hyper compressed but raw and unhinged punk. I know that's like saying 'rock n roll' but there's a real speed and aggression to this stuff while sounding in the garage wheelhouse a the same time. Let's face it there's something to be said for tough speedy punk that takes itself seriously enough to spend time making it sound pretty damn good. You can do away with an pretension of recording technique or you can try to give this the due it deserves. Guess what's harder.

A-Side's "Leeches" fades in on feedback sweet feedback ready to blow, real ungrounded but nothing prepares you for this energy and density. They raise big riffs out of this haze which is Seth Sutton fuzzy if he was in the house band for Tony Molina. Super clean sounding and dirty that could remind one of the industrial period of Killing Joke in the late '90s. Vocals are fantastic, this guy can howl and sound sarcastic in a way thats all his own. Like David Johansen fronting that house band after Tony went solo.

I don't know how this stuff works on B-Side's "Mommy's Place" how they can get a clean but massively crushing sound while keeping these vocals coherent and cutting. It's concise and compact with shuffling changes and an incredible amount of speed. Rough and flying along with a real aggression they carefully laid out. I think I know I'm getting too old when I start to ask questions how you keep this kind of thing up? Except there's that expert sonic hand on "Lose It". Scrappy and smart enough to get it this big? It's almost too perfect, the tinny metallic parts drag this back down to a more recognizable sound - the high echoing treble that is near feedback and scraping strings. Make way for the thick compression that's almost too great sounding. In that mix of 'I just wanted a shitty garage band but I got Hot Snakes or Sparta style production. It's easy to predict this already gaining traction and not stopping anytime soon.

Pick this one up from Hosehead Records.

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