Blood On The Wall - Awesomer (2005)

I picked NYC's Blood on the Wall up based on the Pitchfork Media review. Yes, I do that from time to time. Even though Pitchfork is sometimes contrived and elitist (similar to my beloved city), I owe a great deal to Pitchfork for all the music they have turned me on to and they can be pretty clever at times. They are knowledgable about their bands and are always good at throwing in the proper reference points. Like the review for the album Awesomer (whiched recieved an 8.1 rating out of 10), the reviewer compared it to Pavement, Pixies and Sonic Youth and even said, "I readily admit these fuckers bite all your favorite bands...". And I dont see the problem with that. When I went to buy this I was listening to a lot of Sonic Youth, specifically Goo and Daydream Nation, and Pavement and the Pixies are two of my all time favorite bands. So this seemed like a no-brainer to me, "Just go buy it!" (I bought the Joggers album "A Cape and a Cane" too). Damn, am I happy I did. So, while not being all original and expanding the envelope of modern rock music, Blood on the Wall serve up some tasty treats of dissonat stoner inspired indie rock. The band is helmed by the Brother/ Sister duo of Brad and Courtney Shanks and they both share the vocal duties, Courtney coming off with a very druggy Kim Gorden impression and Brad delivering his best voice cracking rendition of and early Stephen Malkmus meets Black Francis minus the rhetoric. The music is well played and raw, something all the aformention bands eventually lost as they polished their sound. Blood on the Wall is a great reminder what made all their predescessors so great in the first place. That unbridled and unpolished rock and roll that has been making teenagers horny and want to party and making older people relive their youth when they feel that modern music has left them bored.

The Social Registry (Record Label)