Cassette Review // Hairbrush "Good Luck Empty Nailgun" (ERASED! Tapes)
Modem-like sounds turn into noisy rock, complete with the starts and stops. Everything can get to a steady pace and feel dreamy, but also climb back up and just get as fast paced as the fastest paced punk album you've ever heard. There is some heaviness to this, as it can be on that border of a band such as FBTMOF, but it's really just that complex sort of skramz-like rock n roll as well. Hearing this feels like somewhere between At The Drive-In and Darkest Hour, which means (as the kids say) it rips.
What makes this so stunning is just that there are these fun riffs at times, other times it's just a full onslaught on noise. But whatever it is doing, the sound always has these little intricate pieces that make it. I'm from a time when playing punk music meant playing as fast and as loud as you could, so you didn't have to have any particular sense of talent or skill. But this is just so cleverly crafted you wouldn't be able to recreate it without a lot of music study. I can tell when we get to the song "Liv's Mosquitoes" because a saxophone comes blaring through.
Usually songs like this are heavy or complex, but rarely both. A little bit of a slowdown now, and then those grinding chords which make this feel closer to hardcore and metal. The guitar notes can begin to take us on this fun, carousel-like ride. This takes us into a more electronic song, such as some modems starting up in the space station, and then those dark guitar notes come in as we go back to thrashing like metal. If you can create a complex genre of rock called "math rock" is there "math metal"? (I'm so hesitant to look it up)
As the guitar notes come through with the bass line, this takes on an almost grunge sound now- a bit like Cloud Nothings- as the bass line can just crawl and then walk, into that loud, crashing down of guitar chords which comes with it. This sound is what takes to the end of the first side, so I know that the song is "Plan to Follow", but that song with "Hallway" back to back is just some of the most brutal and complicated rock music you will ever hear.
On the flip side we come sliding in with some guitars that generate pleasant notes. We're grooving into some complex screeching on the high notes now and this songs just drives. I like how this sound drags, like metal, with the deep bass but then the guitar cuts through in higher pitches, like it's scratching. Some static into that electronic bug zapper feel now, followed by those up and down scales.
Into a more pleasant sound now, a bit dreamy, as it can feel like we're just expanding out into the sun. During this song, the guitar just sings. You can sing along with these notes. Though not quite the same, this song does remind me a bit of "Black Hole Sun". Climbing now and with more bass I'm reminded of something between Primus and Atom and His Package. Into a steady sound now, like a television theme song about a guy like Knight Rider who is wearing a leather jacket and about to kick some ass.
The next song brings out some electronics, some scraping in a way as the bass keeps a steady sound and the drums just bang along. This has a very direct, very almost tribal-like way about how this percussion just hits: 1-1-2-3-and-4. You can hear these horns coming through now as well, making this feel like some really trippy jazz, like something Trance Macabre would play. Notes continue to create sounds that you can sing along with, as the bass line is huge and it all just drops off into those blaring guitars that just fuel the chaos.
Everything gets really wild now and it feels like we're at a rodeo. I don't really think people should ride bulls because, you know, they can't consent to it so it doesn't feel like something they'd *want* to do, but if you can imagine that panic of being on a bull and knowing that at any moment could the bull not only throw you to the ground but also stomp you to death, that's the way this song feels. The strings can sound as if they are breaking now, as everything just comes to a destructive ending.
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