May 26, 2010 8pm
The Summit
2210 Summit St.
(614) 268-9377
$5 adv
ages 18+ - under 21 pay $2 surcharge
Shearing Pinx
http://www.myspace.com/shearingpinx
Vancouver’s Shearing Pinx expoloded like a tangle of metallic insanity at Rhinoceropolis on Wednesday.
Have you ever seen “Poltergeist 2?? Maybe I’m the only person who’s ever enjoyed it, but whatever. Do you remember the part where the kid’s braces get possessed, blow out of his mouth in a wiry tangle and head toward the electrical sockets while he helplessly watches? I’d like you to keep that image in your mind for a little bit.
Shearing Pinx, composed of two men (Nxc Hxghxs, JVDub) and a lady (Drawnire), were exhibiting signs of possession on Wednesday at Rhinoceropolis. It began innocently enough. And possession, it seems, always happens to good, normal people. Unsuspecting folk, if you will. I watched them set up, plugging in this or adjusting that, and I thought, “Hmm, this band seems friendly.” I distinctly picked up some very un-pretentious vibes of the “Hey,” (blush) “I’m… in a band, I guess” variety. I’ve always loved that, but especially so when the band then proceeds to melt your face off as you writhe rapturously on the floor.
Let’s fast-forward; if you walked into the first minute of their first song with your back turned, you might have expected to whip around and see Shearing Pinx sweaty and purple from their efforts. However, it seemed as though the trio was serving merely as a host, while the music, a riot of angular shapes and squiggles, flowed independently from their prone bodies in an evil stream. Yes, exactly: just like possessed braces flowing freely from that one kid’s pie hole.
That image can be put to especially good use in the case of vocalist Nxc Hxghxs, who, save for the gentle furrow between his brows, gave little bodily indication of the barking torrent streaming from his mouth. To coax a few extra-wretched noises from his guitar, he employed metal rods of various lengths and widths, petting the strings with them and then tossing them on the ground when he was finished. I was impressed.
Usually, when music this tight and fierce undulates with this level of determination, you can see it getting squeezed from a musician’s pores — sometimes in neon colors, like in those Gatorade commercials. To make the kinds of sounds Mr. Hxghxs was making, people usually feel the need to kick and flail, even if their effects are doing all the work. Maybe it’s because I’m a child of the ’90s, but sometimes I think apathy looks pretty cool.
Speaking of the ’90s, I did hear them loitering in there somewhere. That chilled-out passivity, coupled with the feedback and dissonance sliding in edgewise, made me a little nostalgic — especially when the more chaotic rhythms slowed into lovely, anthemic lopes.
Shearing Pinx, for all their perceived modesty, are good at exploding out of themselves when required to do so. The music is a hyperactive death march, an oncoming, inevitable siege. It’s a sky black with locusts; it’s traversing a Slip n’ Slide in a bumpy, sloping yard. Too bad the crowd wasn’t larger; small groups make people timid, and I would have loved to see more than just knee-wiggling. My excuse was that I could feel some of the frequencies in my frontal lobe, and thus I couldn’t do much more than gape happily and take notes.
After having missed this band the last couple of times they came to Rhinoceropolis, I’m happy to report that the buildup of my own hype didn’t leave me disappointed. It’s quite simple, really. If you like good, hearty noise-punk and nice people from Vancouver playing it, you will probably enjoy a Shearing Pinx show as much as I did. As for “Poltergeist 2,” well, I won’t pressure you. - Denver Post
Nu Sensae
http://www.myspace.com/nusensae
“NU SENSAE played in my friend’s front room recently, and they were so loud that at some point the cops came and shined a light at them through the window until they stopped. All they are is bass and drums and a lady growler, but it’s so good. They are super panicky, paranoid grunge punk in that more metal-leaning way rather than indie pop or whatever. Hailing from the ever-amazing noise-fuck scene of Vancouver, Canada, they do not dissapoint. I can’t even think of what to compare them to - possibly SONIC YOUTH (but only Confusion Is Sex) or BABES IN TOYLAND, but way more to the point and faster. They call themselves voodoo punk and somehow it fits. Mega-distorted bass, two-note riffs (if that), driving heavy drums, and grrrl growl/screams throughout. So fucking good! This is a one-sided EP, 45 rpm, fast and short songs. Only 200 copies so go get it right fucking now!” - Maximum RocknRoll
The Unholy Two
http://www.myspace.com/theunholytwosucks
Twin Stumps
http://www.myspace.com/twinstumps
A new full-length from Twin Stumps already is a surprise, given their recent self-titled 12″ came out in only late 2009. It’s even more surprising considering that bassist Mike Yaniro was was hospitalized for injuries from a vicious mugging right before its release. That 12″ sat on the fringe of blown-out hardcore punk where one dropped beat could mean descending into free noise, and is almost more terrifying for being given a steady pulse. Seedbed isn’t a clean-up job or a breakthrough, but it’s an even more focused version of the band’s grim and grimy hardcore, grinding it out at mid-tempo with an almost untenable level of dread.
When they push the boundaries on fidelity, it’s not to sound indistinct or distancing or evoke some lost feeling of nostalgia– it’s to sound more dangerous. Yet their sound isn’t tough-guy posturing; as one follows the rhythm section, sludgy and distorted as they may be, the album’s internal logic starts to dawn on you– the basslines of tracks like “Child Republic” and “Drainage City” are as sleek and hypnotic as they are bruising.
The languid low-end and guitar squeals of tracks like “Business Class” or “Pope’s Nose”, not to mention the tortured vocals, are probably what have earned the band a few comparisons to Pissed Jeans, though the content on Seedbed seems less winking and more wallowing– a sample lyric from “Pope’s Nose” is “You’re not the thing that your mother wanted” repeated ad infinitum. But while there’s not much of a ring of hope in the band’s perspective, there’s still a clarity: while the bass is muffled and there’s a noise like ball-peen hammers on sheet metal pushing the beat on “Missing Persons”, everything the vocalist is shouting is clear (”You might as well/ Every night/ Feel ashamed/ And waste away… choices made”). Twin Stumps are ringing the same sorts of alarm bells: against complacency, against boredom, against not trying– and the artful pummeling of “Missing Persons” or the claustrophobic buildup of tracks like “Caged Emily” prove they belong in that conversation.
Just as striking as those standouts are the very brief moments of respite, like the sound-collage-like “Pigs at the Trough”, gurgling and ominous like hearing like a city being destroyed while hiding in a basement. Even if it only lasts a moment, comparatively, it shows where there’s room for a more dynamic approach. When they get a firmer hold on that, Twin Stumps might get truly terrifying. - Jason Crock, Pitchfork
Kim Phuc
http://www.myspace.com/kimphuc
Pittsburgh heavy-style muck-rockers put the creep on real nice with this seven-inch. Their first single didn’t really thrill me, it was lacking in something. Something they have on this release. I love that they included a march-to-the-cliff “Intro” into “Freak Out the Squares”, which tosses you off that precipice into some serious metal-intoned hardcore-rock, fusing a mid-period AmRep sound with way more dirt and velocity. A commanding vocal performance helps a lot too. Lyrics salute crime model Dawn Davenport in a nice and unexpected touch, proving they’re not taking themselves too seriously. Nice girls don’t wear cha-cha heels, and neither do these guys. On “Wormwood Star” the guy waxes about witches and Babylon and shit, while the band provides muscle via imposing riff building suitable to worship the devil to and then breaking into a Stooge-like death trip part with a little piano twinkle even. A really solid record without a weak moment that bends genres to create their own shadows to skulk about in. Enthralling and full of a confidence in sound I think that first 7″ lacked. I didn’t “get” what they were doing on that record, but with this one it’s grimly clear. Creative sideways use of the 3/4 sleeve design with lyrics on the back. - RK, Criminal IQ