BIRD BLOBS: BIRD BLOBS (REVIEW)
October 24th 2006 11:14
BIRD BLOBS
BIRD BLOBS
(2004; UNSTABLE APE RECORDS)
RATING:
TRACK LISTING: 1) Billy / 2) Head That Talks / 3) Stealing Again / 4) If I Could Kill / 5) Settle Down & Breed / 6) Nothin At All / 7) Back On The Beast / 8) Straight & Narrow/ 9) My Last Gold Dollar / 10) Drunk At The Mill
I’ve been waitin’ for some time out here on the porch, with my shotgun and my smellhound Geech, for another band to come along who can spew out a jazz-punk-swamp-blues to rival my favourite groups like The Birthday Party, Killdozer, and The Jesus Lizard. Melbourne’s very own Bird Blobs are a bit busier on this album than those bands ever were, with an abstract Captain Beefheartian thing spazzin' up their sound, but will still get your bones a-rattlin’ with their fractured primal blues meets organic schizoid disco.
There’s plenty of inbred mayhem to be had here on this self-titled album: no surprise seeming as they originally hail from Tasmania. The lyrics offer a glimpse at the violently drunken criminal underbelly of Australia, and follow a kind of murderous yokel logic (“If I can kill a cow, then I can kill a man”). It’s all delivered in the deliciously nasty, grating style of vocalist/guitarist Tim Evans: who sounds like the snot-covered lovechild of Johnny Rotten and David Yow. His distorted nasal twang is backed up with dollops of chicken scratch blues ‘n’ funk and guttural guitar rumblings courtesy of himself and Ian Wadley; distorted yet melodic post-punk basslines from Jordan Redaelli; and the disorientating, primal drumming of Steve Masterson: a guy who probably couldn’t play a 4/4 beat if he tried (which keeps the rhythms consistently interesting).
If there’s one problem with this album, it’s that all the band’s blobs seem to run together into a murky and indistinguishable slag. But if you take the time to let the goop seep into your ears, each song may eventually endear itself to you in its own sweet and personal way. There’s the slithering fuzzy blues of “Straight & Narrow”; the apocalyptic swagger of “Drunk At The Mill”; the jittery, clanking rampage of “Nothing At All"; and the syncopated, bootyshakin’ throb of my personal favourite: “Stealing Again”. The latter two tunes and others on the record approach a kind of skeletal funk informed by the Gang of Four; but this is certainly no Franz Ferdinand disco-punk record. The band are just too violent and sick-sounding to get the typical indie kid up on the dancefloor, and this album is less for the hip and more for the hunchbacked at heart. Take the truly hateful dirge rock of “Back On The Beast” for example. It's got a disorientating ‘n’ mesmerising guitar line and possibly the most evil bass (death) rattle I’ve heard in a while. That don't make for no indie club hit, but it might make you wanna hit an indie kid with a club.
Dropping from the sky and dripping down your face, Bird Blobs are definitely a band worth keeping a head’s-up for if you like yer punk off-kilter and yer blues as twisted as the branches of a haunted forest oak. They may draw heavily on Australia’s menacing garage rock tradition, but they’ve got their own aggressively original take on the style, and Bird Blobs (2004) is a violently agitated progression from their more straightforward, blues-based Stihl Life (2003) album.
***
IMAGES
Bird Blobs*
(album cover used under fair dealing)
* images on this page were taken from the following Post Everything page:
Bird Blobs
BIRD BLOBS
(2004; UNSTABLE APE RECORDS)
RATING:
TRACK LISTING: 1) Billy / 2) Head That Talks / 3) Stealing Again / 4) If I Could Kill / 5) Settle Down & Breed / 6) Nothin At All / 7) Back On The Beast / 8) Straight & Narrow/ 9) My Last Gold Dollar / 10) Drunk At The Mill
Bird Blobs (2004)
There’s plenty of inbred mayhem to be had here on this self-titled album: no surprise seeming as they originally hail from Tasmania. The lyrics offer a glimpse at the violently drunken criminal underbelly of Australia, and follow a kind of murderous yokel logic (“If I can kill a cow, then I can kill a man”). It’s all delivered in the deliciously nasty, grating style of vocalist/guitarist Tim Evans: who sounds like the snot-covered lovechild of Johnny Rotten and David Yow. His distorted nasal twang is backed up with dollops of chicken scratch blues ‘n’ funk and guttural guitar rumblings courtesy of himself and Ian Wadley; distorted yet melodic post-punk basslines from Jordan Redaelli; and the disorientating, primal drumming of Steve Masterson: a guy who probably couldn’t play a 4/4 beat if he tried (which keeps the rhythms consistently interesting).
If there’s one problem with this album, it’s that all the band’s blobs seem to run together into a murky and indistinguishable slag. But if you take the time to let the goop seep into your ears, each song may eventually endear itself to you in its own sweet and personal way. There’s the slithering fuzzy blues of “Straight & Narrow”; the apocalyptic swagger of “Drunk At The Mill”; the jittery, clanking rampage of “Nothing At All"; and the syncopated, bootyshakin’ throb of my personal favourite: “Stealing Again”. The latter two tunes and others on the record approach a kind of skeletal funk informed by the Gang of Four; but this is certainly no Franz Ferdinand disco-punk record. The band are just too violent and sick-sounding to get the typical indie kid up on the dancefloor, and this album is less for the hip and more for the hunchbacked at heart. Take the truly hateful dirge rock of “Back On The Beast” for example. It's got a disorientating ‘n’ mesmerising guitar line and possibly the most evil bass (death) rattle I’ve heard in a while. That don't make for no indie club hit, but it might make you wanna hit an indie kid with a club.
Dropping from the sky and dripping down your face, Bird Blobs are definitely a band worth keeping a head’s-up for if you like yer punk off-kilter and yer blues as twisted as the branches of a haunted forest oak. They may draw heavily on Australia’s menacing garage rock tradition, but they’ve got their own aggressively original take on the style, and Bird Blobs (2004) is a violently agitated progression from their more straightforward, blues-based Stihl Life (2003) album.
***
IMAGES
Bird Blobs*
(album cover used under fair dealing)
* images on this page were taken from the following Post Everything page:
Bird Blobs
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