The Bolides - Science Under Pressure
Dionysus Records
Bolides web site
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For those of you who slept through astronomy class (that was supposed to be an easy A, remember?), a bolide is a meteor, and specifically, one that explodes. I don’t know if this Southern California-based, sci-fi-driven garage/punk quartet delivers that kind of destructive power in their live shows, but since everyone in L.A. lives in constant fear of The Big One, I kinda hope they do, since I imagine it’d be more preferable to meet my doom listening to them than falling victim to the whim of platechtonics. In a nutshell, the Bolides are mad scientists who experiment on unsuspecting audiences with their ’66 garage rock-meets-’77-era punk squawk. The obvious influences are all tapped—DEVO and Man…Or Astro-Man? at the top of the list, of course, but where both of those bands maintained an impassive, robotic façade, Bolides’ frontman Dr. Victor Osiris has a raw-throated carny holler that suggests the Cramps’ Lux Interior assuming the title role in a musical adaption of Dr. Butcher M.D. (as Dr. O growls in “Nurse Standby #,” “I’ll put my treatment on you/Who cares if my credentials are true?/I’ll run a fuckin’ test on you!”). Since sleazy medical and scientific hijinks are no longer just the exclusive territory of ‘50s science fiction and ‘70s hospital horror movies, Science Under Pressure’s hotshot of retro garage punk should soothe the pain caused by that scalpel your HMO-approved sawbones left in your guts while he was strung out on Hydrocone purloined from the supply room.

—Paul Gaita
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