Artist.......: Sonic Chicken 4
Album........: Sonic Chicken 4
Label........: In The Red
Genre........: Indie
Catnr........: n/a
source.......: CDDA
rip.date.....: dec-13-2007
str.date.....: 000-00-0000
quality......: VBR/44.1Hz/Joint-Stereo
Url..........: n/a
track title time
01. sexiest 02:55
02. stupid & cryin' 01:41
03. margharita 02:29
04. do it allright 02:22
05. on my way 02:56
06. only lose 02:08
07. shalalalalove 02:34
08. girl 66 02:35
09. i had too much to drink (last night) 02:56
10. creature in a picture 02:36
11. right side of [woman] 03:04
12. cool song 01:27
Runtime 29:43 min
Size 27,7 MB
Release Notes:
The Sonic Chicken 4 are not an easy one to pin
down. My first exposure to them was their song on
Nasty Product's "Love Killed My Brain" 7inch comp.
Even with heavy hitters such as the Fatals, the
Mighty Go Go Players and Kung Fu Escalator on it
they stole the show with a piece of Velvet
Underground and Jesus and the Mary Chain get a
touch of Ye'-Ye' accents called "Love Song". The
next thing I laid my ears on by 'em was their
second single (never have heard the first. It's
long gone out of print. Would like to have one in
my collection some day) and it was a bit different
than what I expected judging off the one song that
had become one of my favorite tunes of the last
five years. Both "Don't Let Me Down" and "Sonic
Night" threw me for a loop because they were highly
caffeinated (or maybe under the influence of "hot
drugs") maximum R&B spazzouts that could get any
ol' bag of bones gyrating and shakin' all loose but
trying to keep up tempo-wise might dislocate a
joint or two. Then they throw in the suitcase
xylophone on the latter's the Fall does some kinda
mutant rockabilly wandering lost in the middle of a
city where Salvador Dali once declared it's train
station the center of the universe (as well as a
noted wine region) that the Sonic Chicken 4 call
home and you've got a band that rises a mind to
take note and enquire what they'll do next.
Hitting right off the bat with Velvet's "I Can't
Stand It/Foggy Notion" type chug infected with a
twitchy nervous condition called "Sexiest" and a
chorus that not only sticks in your head but
eventually caramelizes it. It's followed by two
trashy numbers wringing wet in maximum R&B, "Stupid
n' Crying" which tags back and forth between and a
folky jangle with full on "Woo" backing vocals & a
rat ta tat tat drumbeat and "Margharita", which
takes the Gories recipe and broils it to a crisp
with a searing harmonica honk and a smashed up Mod
guitar crashes. "Do It All Right" an impetuous
collision of American country music, Jaques
DuTronc's capriciousness and the Real Kids
declaring elation for getting out of the folks
house.
"On My Way" wiggles with a twisty duo ragga guitar
lines ala the Feelies, a buzzy turnaround part that
keeps popping up and bending the tune into a place
different than a song like this usally goes, a
melodic drone something like the Telescopes and a
blast of dirty guitar to hold it all together.
"Only Lose" fools you at first thinking it's gonna
be some ragged teen jangler then the noise is
turned wide open and it sounds like something like
the Cheater Slicks kicking the shit out of some
brit-pop song.
It's dark and rainy 'round here today but when
"Shalalalalove" comes on it's like a summer day. A
dance party on the beach, a girl group gone really,
really bad and the boys that led 'em down that path
and the taste of lemonade and vodka. A tart
sweetness with more than a bit of spike. "Girl 66"
has a bit of that Chuck Berry when he played
hillbilly licks thing going on and hoping the bus
across town for a bit of sugar. The bus is missing
it's tail pipe so it inspires ol' Chuck to get all
the guitars to sound like it. He couldn't quite do
it though so he wrote it down, stuck it in a bottle
and decades later the Sonic Chicken 4 stumbles
across it on a riverbank a million miles away from
where it was launched.
"I Had Too Much To Drink (Last Night)" takes
another VU formula, feeds it's a steady diet of
punk rock and drops of some type of psych-noise
brain frying grease. "Creature In The Pictures"
flashes back and forth between a My Bloody
Valentine track peeled down to just it's meat in
the middle of a torrential downpour and a walk
through the park on a day when flowers are bloom.
There's been a few times through this record where
I've wanted to declare a certain tune "The damn
best pop song of the moment" then "The Right Side
of A Woman" comes on and I wanna do it again. The
right amount of everything they put in their songs
all in one package. This album will not be leaving
the turntable if not for any other reason than
because of that. You hear the songs and find
something that catches your ear making ya wanna
sing along or turn up loud & jump on the couch,
make you rethink the kind of distortion pedal you
have and how you use it....You get the picture.
Late contender for album of the year but they'll be
making my 2007 list.