| It's hard
to place the spazz rock issued by GoGoGo Airheart within
the context of their San Diego home's seaside torpor
and nice-little-town feel. It all sounds more dirty
and urban. The boys of Airheart could loosely be grouped
with a new wave of postpunk bands making noise nowadays,
although after five LPs in as many years, they have
a head start that places them apart from any trends.
Bassman A. Vyas pounds out looping lines that can be
funky and uptight or just plain ominous, as J. Hough
works the drum rolls and gives his cymbals the what-for.
Meanwhile, ax-swingers Benjamin White and Michael Vermillion
trade off jagged chordal slashes and squiggly leads
like a short-attention-span Television or D. Boon's
illegitimate brood.
On
new release Exitheuxa -- say that three times
fast -- GGGAH have cleared away some of the accustomed
murk and herded their muse into marginally more straightforward
territory. Which, coming from these guys, still sounds
like something from an alternate dimension. They throw
in any and all of the junk they feel like, from Spanish
guitar flourishes to rub-a-dub, and Vermillion warbles,
rants, chokes and whines his fractured spiels, radiating
bad vibes. But as an instrumental unit the band refuse
to forget that rock 'n' roll was originally, and must
remain, music the kids can dance to. This amalgam
of dread and joy can be thrilling or befuddling, but
the puzzle pieces raise expectations for some real
electricity in concert.
Speaking of the rub-a-dub, joining GGGAH on the
Spaceland bill are De Facto, whose rhythm section
will be more familiar as the faces of the Mars Volta
and the Afro-tastic contingent from defunct KROQ darlings
At the Drive-In. And speaking of retro-postpunk, local
comers the Moving Units will appear at both L.A. dates.
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