16- Zoloft Smile (At a Loss)

Who are 16, and what the fuck do they want from you? Well, they’re a bunch of miserable pricks that wanna drag you right down into their deep well of cagey depression and watch you smother. Sound like fun?

This is the first album from these LA-based chicken littles in half a dozen years, and since the world’s only gotten worse since they last jammed, they’ve got plenty to grouse and grind about here. Musically, this is so far away from the ‘stoner rock’ tag the ever hopeful hippy metal kids want it to be that I’m scratching my head and wondering why they were ever lumped in with that dizzy crowd in the first place. Sounds more like Godflesh minus the machinery fetish to me. It’s a slow, loping, pseudo-industrial creepy crawl to a finish line they don’t wanna reach in the first place. Like most people in their twenties during the 90’s, I did my brief tour of duty with Zoloft, and believe me, the resultant goofy smile didn’t sound anything like this. On Zoloft, Blind Melon made a whole lotta sense. This, on the other hand, would have just had me begging Dr. Shrinker to up the dose. I thought that maybe opener “Damone” was gonna be an inappropriately lascivious ode to adolescent grungepop princess Noelle or something cool like that, but it’s really just about the Damone of Ridgemont High, if he was freaking the fuck out on dust. Sure man, that’s cool too, just in a different way. Other songs cover tasty rock and roll matter like Alzheimers, matricide, broken homes, and wage slavery. It’s like watching 12 TV’s, all tuned to different news channels, on some really, really bad day. Only in slow motion.

Which is not to say that “Zoloft Smile” is a bad record. On the contrary, it’s a head ripping slam-fest of pummeling, low-end aggression that would make a great soundtrack for an impromptu round of Russian roulette, or a weekend’s worth of overtime at the local slaughterhouse. I’m just warning you to be prepared for some seriously bad vibes. Now, where’s that straight razor? I suddenly feel like opening up.
 
Click to buy Zoloft Smile at Amazon for $14.99!