Sunday, January 13, 2008

Pissing on the Brainbombs

More than one well meaning, well schooled punk-o with proven refined tastes has thrown the name "Brainbombs" in my direction. Knowing that a couple of them are in Totalitar(god) meant that I had to stop sleeping and check it out. So seeing as I live in a town without a record store worth checking out, I used my internet machine to hear some of these tunes. At first I thought it sounded cool, a nice chunky riff, creepy vocals and gloom abound. Then I started to hate it. What makes or breaks any music(in any genre) is focus and execution, and Brainbombs fall flat in both of these areas. While a sonically similar band like Swans is very refined and laboriously put together, Brainbombs come across like a thrown together side-project, an inside joke. Their lyrical efforts to sound "evil" and provocative are extremely forced, and while a language barrier might be partially responsible for this, songs about killing and raping people without making a point are for fools. Lyrical the Brainbombs are Answer Me! for Dummies. Please reference "Jordan, Minnesota" for an example of how to do it right. The music itself is an exercise in tedium, and while that in itself doesn't exclude greatness(or even perfection) this lacks any of the charm of our fave San-Fran fish masters and their ilk. I'm left wondering what my friends see that I don't. As always, make up your own mind, I did.

2 comments:

stan.k said...

if you think music like this is for fools... why did you listen to it in the first place? or even like it only to change your mind. music like the brainbombs, though i won't defend them as musicians, or great lyricists. i doubt they'd have liked to considered so... in fact, one might say they are horrible musicians who poop into microphones who aren't concerned as to whether you raise your eyebrows or not. that might be the inside joke you talked about - i got it, and i think a lot of other people got it. maybe the point of the joke is to laugh at those who want to compare a band that's just about hitting guitars and silly lyrics about hyper violence and sex to groups like the swans... i dunno man.
it's funny, cause i got in to brainbombs first - then heard totalitar which i just thought was boring.

and i think what sounds more forced than the content of the lyrics is his english. there's definitely a language barrier and that adds a certain simplicity to them that strip away a lot of the seriousness and pretentiousness that can be associated with bands like these...

anyway, that's my mind made up.

XXXacto said...

you are a fucking idiot