Music Reviews: Blood Brothers, Pere Ubu

Blood Brothers – Young Machetes

The Blood Brothers maintain an unusually large and fabulous place in today's glutted art-punk market; where the majority of floppy-haired guitar-waifs wail about shards of glass coating their hearts over Punk 101 power chords, the Brothers are more apt to lace their post-hardcore slash and burn with Queen keyboards and falsetto vocals about car crashes.

True to form, this record is shriller than a sack of drowning kittens, but unlike Crimes, their previous (and, to date, best) record, Young Machetes seems more preoccupied with maintaining the band's singular image—imagine a post-apocalyptic Kids Incorporated—than writing a good album. The memorable song titles ("Huge Gold AK-47" being our personal favorite) outnumber the memorable songs by about 2 to 1; notable exceptions include the moody atonal riffing on "We Ride Skeletal Lightning" and snazzy Chorus-Line bop of "Lazer Life," but if you liked Crimes, you'd do better to check out singer Jordan Billie’s side project, the weirder, poppier Neon Blonde. You aren't going to find anything else in modern alternative that sounds quite like the Blood Brothers—but they’ve done it better.

Pere Ubu - Why I Hate Women

Long considered one of the quintessential American punk bands, Pere Ubu specialized in a highly literate, hard-to-categorize blend of low-class garage rock and heavily stylized post-rock (for a perfect introduction, check out Twin/Tone’s 1985 comp Terminal Tower). Virtually unknown during their most active period, Ubu’s influence reverberated like shock waves through the next two decades of indie rock—so much so that it’s a little surprising to realize, after years of breakups, drug and alcohol problems, and sporadic (at best) commercial interest, frontman Dave Thomas is putting out a new Ubu record. From the catchy title to the hideous glob of noise that opens the album, it’s apparent that Thomas isn’t too concerned with impressing anyone. While the album feels thoroughly lived-in and features a few good moments, notably the bristling “Two Girls (One Bar),” overall this edition of Pere Ubu is more of a chore to listen to than most fans will remember.