Demos
- December, '03
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Fools Like You
website
Quirky, slightly snotty jangle-stuff from Youngstown, Ohio. No, I’m not
talking about that underage hooker you picked up last week, I’m talking
about Fools Like You, side-project number 2 of inexhaustible rock n’ roll
tyrant and have-bass/guitar/throat/whatever-will-travel highwayman BJ Lisko,
of Hellvis and Turbo Lover fame. Of the unholy trinity of bands,
Fools are
the side-ways renegades, and all traces of AC/DC and the sweatstink that
comes with ‘em are scrubbed clean here. Instead, ya get a ’77
punk-slash-new wave kinda sound, somewhere ‘tween Television and the
Damned. Or ‘twixt, if ya wanna throw in the Buzzcocks, as well. It’s punk,
punk, ripped t-shirts and glue-sniffin’ style (Expect for the last 20
seconds of closer “Last Train to Hillsville", which sounds like
Deep
Purple). Basically, if you stranded Richard Hell in the wilds of Ohio for
a year or so, this is pretty much the band he’d form. If he didn’t blow
his head off first, that is.*
*It’s a rule, man. You write about a band from Ohio, you make a snide
remark about Ohio. Don’t wanna fuck with tradition.
______________________________________________________________________
Liquidust
website
Three tracks of neo-goth metal from a Stockholm based power trio. Although
the throaty chick up front, Kiana, is blonde and wears a wifebeater in the
promo pix, she still sounds like one of those dyed-black ice-queens, and
we’re all suckers for that trip right? Right. However, Liquidust are much
poppier than stylistically similar bands like Left Hand Solution or Bloodflowerz, and come off sorta like
Evanescence in leather boots, half
the time. Which is either sexy or it’s not, ya know. Anyway, of the trio
of tracks on deck here, I gotta go with the dark, smoky locust storm “My
Ground”, which oughta bring to mind epic gothdoom headbangers Lucubro, if
yr savvy to suicide metal. Same kinda rainstorm bellow and red-eyed
spookygirl caterwauling, anchored by a bass-heavy Sabbath throb. Bitchin’.
The other two tracks are less graveyard crunch then they are faraway
cracks of summertime thunder, but I don’t think Liquidust is out to suck
yr blood or nothin’ evil like that anyway.
____________________________________________________________________________________________
website
This
is actually an EP, not a demo, but you know, let’s not split hairs. Truth
of the matter is, these super-slackers from Austin are gonna rocket right
to the middle no matter what ya call this 4 track ball o’ goodstuff.
Here’s the thing- long, long ago, like in the 80’s, back before every
goddamn band marketed themselves in tiny sub-sub-genres (a little
electro-honky tonk, sir? How ‘bout some acid doomboogie?), there were only
two kindsa bands- ones that rocked, and one’s that didn’t. It was good
system. You always knew who yer friends were back then. In the 80’s, the
Murdocks would have gotten tossed into the “rock” pile, easy. They
woulda gotten favorable comparisons to gritty, boozy, roots rockin’ bands
like the Replacements, the Buck Pets, and the Dancing
Hoods. The weird dudes down at the record store would blast ‘em on
Saturday afternoons, and really cute girls would know the words to the
songs, even the ones with fucked-up titles like “Death of a French
Whore” and “Dance the Vomit Shakes”. It’s not even close to the
80’s, tho, so Murdocks get pegged as “garage rock” a lot, even tho
they don’t sound a thing like any gang of gas-guzzling Swedes you can
think of. So, just take it from a salty old fucker like me- is you dig
dirty, swaggering powerpop tunes by cats that are as clever as they are
tipsy, then belly-up to the bar and order a pint or two of Murdocks.
They go down smooth and leave a nice afterglow, man. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
website
Finns by any other name, Trigon like to call their racket “Zen Jazz”
which is a hell of a way to sell a grunge band, but jazz is tricky like
that, I suppose. These 3 tracks are definitely leafy n’ hazy, and have
that same sort of druggy-but-earnest feel as the Stone Temple Pilots.
It’s all pretty lush and dramatic, like breaking up with a supermodel in
a dimly-lit bar in some ski-resort town at the end of the Earth. It’s
not complicated enuff to be headphone rock, but it’d definitely be my
choice for a lazy Nyquil ride on the big leather couch, ya know? I dig
the epic, Soundgarden-ish “Turn the Waters” the best of the three here,
but all 3 tracks have their charms, for sure. Trigon might turn into
Nickelback if some jive record label gets their claws in ‘em, but that’s
just the kinda risk yer gonna have to take, pal.
________________________________________________________
website
Hellvis ( the two “L”, trapped in Ohio, white trash boogie-sleaze version. Not to be confused with the one “L” stonerdoom version, who are probably trapped somewhere else entirely) mainman BJ Lisko dips even deeper into the hardstuff for this triple shot of AC/DC n’ (obviously) Judas Priest chugarama. Steppin’ up to the front of the stage on lead axe and lead crotch grapping suits the young buck well, and TL’s trio of thundersleaze most definitely lives up to the Super Hard title. Dig the head banging superhero bounce and the smooth jiveman delivery on opening cruncher “Drive On”, the rippin’ flash metal leads on the Dead Kennedys-meets-Priest punk n’ roller “22 Goin on’ 40”, and the shameless Ratt n’ roll of “You’ve Been Caught”. That’s right, I said ‘shameless’. That’s how rock and roll is supposed to act, ya know.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
website
Zitter is a two-man rock army (Fred
handles bass, vox, and, regrettably,
the kazoo; B Gustaf is on guitars, drums, and keys. Presumably not all
at once) from Sweden. They raid the vaults of 80’s metal for
inspiration, yet they’re far from headbangers –“Alligator Highway” is
more of mellow-yellow cosmic grunge thing, just with a few glam metal powerchords tossed in to keep things moving. As with any band that’s
studio-bound, Zitter sounds less organic than they oughta, but the lack
of extra hands and beating hearts is a minor quibble, really. Fact of
the matter is the band does just fine as a duo, and the songs are all
meaty and warm and filled with all kindsa good parts. It’s just a little
tough describing what this rekkid sounds like, since it cuts a very wide
swath, from rootsy, folky stuff like the downbeat “Believer” and “Naked”
to Celebrity Skin-esque (the band, bro, not the Hole record) liquid glambangers like “Red House” and “Sorry”. But hey, that kind of sonic
schizophrenia worked just fine for the Butthole Surfers and, uh…Outkast,
so why not, right? Anyway, these cats remind me a lot of Blind Melon.
Not so much 'cuz they sound like 'em, but because they seem to operate
from a vast green meadow, filled with buzzing bees and dandelions. And
that ain't such a bad place to visit, once in a while.
________________________________________________________
-Sleazegrinder