Public Animal out of Toronto sent in their latest single from Yeah Right Records. Spraypainted stencil letters on blueish snakeskin got my attention but I wasn't prepared for the blown out theatrical southern blues psych rock production from these guys. They're one of those bands where everyone can sing and play to a high level of proficiency to the point I'm sure they were all actively recruited for every local bands at different points before this. Public Animal probably landed because it was the place where they finally were playing what they wanted.
A-Side's "One Way Ticket" comes on as strong as possible, from the thundery toms that drop right into a huge Darkness metal glam sound. The guitars should be the focus but every facet has been polished like a crystal skull, it's cool from every angle. Lots of harmony between the guy girl vocal from Caitlin and Ian is what almost overpowers those fine tuned guitar bursts thick and compressed to the edges of their sound waves. This is a southern sounding Wolfmother with heavy organ under the thick chords racing into a dime stop. Running right up to the edge and then pulling the emergency brake. It's an overwhelming sound like this sliding of the chorus a half step over and over raising that peak beyond the red. There's a huge void in the apartment when this stops playing, the sound that used to artificially fill every spare atom just got sucked out.
B-Side's "Vault Doors" is still shockingly packed with unknowable layers of guitar in thier speed blues (?) that shoots straight to the Wolfmother sound on steroids, the southern kind of shit kicker rock of Thin Lizzy is somewhere here but these guys seem to be hell bent on pushing it a thousand miles further to a point that it starts to seem scary again. I can't hold it against a band that comes out this strong determined to nail this epic stoner psych sound beyond the usual places. They wanted to make this single count. But to accurately represent what's inside here I would have advised on a black leather box with embossed flames or a psychic ball. Old oiled leather with rivets and feathers hanging off the side, classy ones. Now I am adaquately prepared for this.
Get copies from the band direct. I guess the tolex sleeve means crazy snakeskin? Because that's what mine is made out of. Nice touch.
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