Although it brings to mind both late '70s UK post-punk (Wire/Swell Maps/Mekons) and mid '70s Cleveland pre-punk (Pagans/Electric Eels/Rocket from the Tombs), Tyvek's music still sounds uniquely "early 21st Century decaying Detroit" to me. It's pretty weird, and in tone it suggests the strangeness and despair of crime-ridden, economically depressed, post auto-boom Michigan. B-side number "Honda", an "attack on car culture", is quite simply the best song released this year by anyone. Behind singer Kev's strange, brilliant spoken word rant, jangled guitars and a minimalist beat follow along, the pace moving increasingly faster as the narrative rises to a near psychotic tone. It peaks with some phenomenal fractured guitar work collapsing into a shambling musical car wreck -- just the right fit for the last gasps of Kev's vocal outburst. Song of the Year for sure! A-side cut "Mary Ellen Claims", an attack on "the mass media's promotion of anti-psychotic drugs for the youth as a cure for demonic possession", is more straight-forward but doesn't sound like any other punk song you've heard in 2006. It's a nice blend of crude, barely competent playing and creative, highly effective songwriting. I love the hooky guitars, the spare but catchy chorus, and Kev's appealingly bad singing. It's hard for me to pinpoint it exactly, but there's a quality to this song that keeps drawing me back in.
( I wish I could remember who wrote this review to give them their due credit. )
The mp3s are tagged as coming from the "Fast Metabolism" full length. The reason being is that these songs are also on that release so instead of ripping the vinyl I ripped the CD. They originally appeared on this 7" single.
This single went out of press very quickly. Lets hope X! Recordings reissues it soon.
-COA
1 comment:
Hey Pretentious Assholes! Please re-up. I'd love to hear this...thanks.
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