The Gang: Zero Hits

By: Dennis Cook

In a torrent of swirling guitars and shout-sung vocals, The Gang arrives, post-punks gone native that immediately proceed to complicate everything, twisting and bending music like delightfully peculiar glass blowers, giving breath and shape to the hot raw materials. There’s some of the crackling spark of Yeasayer and Tunng but there’s a cloaked internal logic to The Gang that’s entirely their own. As wildly varied as Zero Hits (released June 3 on Absolutely Kosher) is it really shouldn’t make sense but it does. Swinging on drones, banging big drums, slicing electric guitars taking chunks out of you while they harmonize like some lysergic Partridge Family, The Gang is their own beast. They’re ability to stir excitement and pleasure recalls Akron/Family, though there’s a bit more song structure and love of pure melody here. Zero Hits makes me want to throw on a Hare Krishna robe, snort a rainbow and dance, dance, dance. It may not hit everyone this way but the sheer profundity of their creation will surely inspire some kind of response. This is not passive music and it’s nigh impossible to receive it passively. Let it in and you might find yourself fueled up for a cosmic trek or three, and it’s always a good idea to store up on soul coal when someone’s shoveling it.

JamBase | Up & Over
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