Eat Skull : Sick to Death

Eat Skull
Sick to Death
Siltbreeze
2008-06-24

If Times New Viking lowered the bar for the current lo-fi movement Eat Skull has taken that bar, mangled it, and buried it in the ground with the rotting carcass of Guided by Voices and some old Lou Barlow seven-inches. This demented, off-kilter take on jangle pop is not completely unlike their previous work as the Hospitals, but Sick to Death features enough feel-good major-chord action to qualify it as an homage to the innovators of skuzzy four-track recordings.

Indecipherable lyrics and whirring, treble-heavy guitars pervade. Whether it’s the blistering ruckus of “Beach Brains”, the contemplative melancholy of “Waiting for the Hesitation”, or the toy gloc-led “Shredders on Fry” there’s punk songs underneath this impenetrable layer of sludge. And it’s hard to tell if Eat Skull is so appealing because, or despite, of this excessive racket. Either way it’s a relief to hear a band so deliciously raw in the midst of the slicky produced Pro Tools generation. Eat Skull brings back the early ’90s indie rock and all it’s glorious imperfection.

RATING 7 / 10