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By Dennis Cook
An EP can be a lot of things – a stop-gap between albums, a showcase for adventurous ideas, a place for leftovers or a pithy introduction. The Blood Brothers' Love Rhymes EP manages to be a bit of all these. Together just under a decade, The Blood Brothers are a blast of rock salt in the face, a magnificently abrasive ululation that threads hardcore with heavy metal finesse. Desperate, immediate and overwhelming, it is impossible to ignore. Their hyper-angst quickly captured the attention of a generation who's picking their music up through grassroots outlets like online zines and MySpace. It's so tortured, so off-the-radar, it would be tough for any teenager to resist.
As phlegm-spewing as their work can be, there have been hints of melody and a bent pop instinct emerging on their past two (fabulous) releases, 2004's Crimes and 2003's Burn Piano Island, Burn. What this new EP does is showcase this side of The Blood Brothers, offering alternate versions of Crimes cuts, a few snaky jam-filled outtakes, and a live take of "Love Rhymes With Hideous Car Wreck," which despite its title is this young band's most radio-friendly track yet. There's also their remix of the dark Gang of Four anthem "Anthrax," whose first verse nicely encapsulates the mood of The Blood Brothers' music:
Woke up this morning desperation a.m.
What I've been saying won't say them again
My head's not empty, it's full with my brain
The thoughts I'm thinking
Like piss down a drain
The greatest impediment for new listeners is the strident, operatic vocals of Johnny Whitney and Jordan Blilie. They swoop, peck and cry with the fierceness of wounded fowl. It takes some getting used to, and the key for this writer was seeing their storm force live show. Watching them form these sounds in real time attested to the conviction behind their ocean-deep passions. Thankfully, there's a lot more actual singing on this EP, which makes this the ideal starting place for the uninitiated.
"Love Rhymes With Hideous Car Wreck" is a pop song dress that gets pulled on, shredded and smudged. Initially it recalls New Order and X-Ray Spex, but 2-minutes in Slayer wraps up the new wavers in duct tape and dumps them in a landfill. "Metronomes" is Jarhead re-envisioned, an effective piece of Sturm und Drang where soldiers "kill everything, lights out!" The alternate versions are longer, offering more places of entry and clearer evidence that The Blood Brothers produce a less architectural version of the massive sound scapes The Mars Volta are being celebrated for right now. The one misstep here is a rap added to "Peacock Skeleton with Crooked Feathers" that's unintentionally funny. It's balanced by new one "Ladies and Gentlemen," which grafts authentic punk screaming to Dio-worthy metalisms and unusual lyrics like "the harpsichord takes a bow."
Like many young, rough bands that stick with it, The Blood Brothers appear to be on the same arc as Husker Du and the Beastie Boys. They've learned to play and have greater reach and greater ambition with each release. I think it's safe to say there's a good deal to look forward to with their next full-length this Fall.
JamBase | South Bay
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