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By: Scott Caffrey
L.A. skate/art/punk duo No Age (singing drummer Dean Spunt and guitarist Randy Randall), is definitely onto something with Weirdo Rippers (FatCat), but even after repeat listens, I’m still not sure what it is. This is a noisy, hard-edged, mish-mash highlight reel of their first musical "stunt" – five limited-edition, vinyl-only EPs released on the same day by a handful of indie labels across the globe. Their lo-tech sound is jarring, and maybe a little disconcerting. You can absolutely hear the talent, like on the rocking mess that is "Boy Void." But, following it with the go-nowhere "I Wanna Sleep" and chunky noise-pop of "My Life's Alright Without You" is almost inconsiderate. And that's kind of how the album goes. It’s not all bad, though. "Everybody's Down" is one of the rousingest rawkers I've heard in a while. It’s also something of an actual song. At 11 tracks and 32 minutes, Weirdo is a brief statement that stirs that giddy feeling of discovering a new band on their cusp, but there are too many out-there sketches to proclaim Weirdo Rippers as anything more than an interesting experiment.
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