I Ate My DVD Collection

So I saw a brilliant performance tonight.  Dan Katz and Raghav Goyal, formerly named the Aristokatz, but forced to switch to the Aristogoyals because of Disney copyright issues, they are the new Disney music cover band on campus here at Oberlin.  Tonight was their debut concert, and I have to tell you, it was genius.  It was probably the worst official performance I’ve ever heard musically, but it was bad like Neil Hamburger is bad at comedy (only actually funny).  I couldn’t really explain it except that it was like musical dadaism, only gleefully lighthearted.  For whatever reason, it was pure comedy genius to me.  I mean, everyone at the Cat in the Cream (for the non-Obie readers, the campus coffeehouse) was laughing and enjoying the hell out of it for at least a half hour, but I was still dying by the end of the show’s hour, and I couldn’t wipe a smile off my face for a good hour after that.  If they hone their craft either way (towards the musical end or towards the comedy end), they really could be something special, and I’m totally serious about that.  Much love.

And of course, they’re both on the Oberlin Horsecows Ultimate Frisbee Team Organization, Esq.

Now, I know that i said I was going to do a rap roundup for my next review, but then the Eagles of Death Metal released a record, and that’s a drop-everything moment for me.  I haven’t given their first album, Peace Love Death Metal, much of a listen, but their sophomore effort, 2006’s Death By Sexy, is one of my absolute favorites.  It rocks so hard, and is so much fun.  When trying to describe their visceral appeal to others, I often fall back on the expression, “It’s like music with a giant cock.  Like, huge.”  And I think that’s fairly accurate.  You can feel the machismo ooze out of their music.  Frontman Jesse “The Devil” Hughes is cocky with a capital Cock, and he’s famed(ish) for his outlandish attitude with fans at shows, and his mustache, which is a lady tickler of the highest degree.  This guy still lives the life, as it’s obvious.

I first got into EoDM when Morgan showed me them saying they reminded her of Queens of the Stone Age, a band I had shown her.  It turned out she was unwittingly prophetic – Josh Homme, lead singer of Queens of the Stone Age, is the drummer for EoDM and the secondary creative force.  Since then, it’s been a constant love affair between the band and me – whenever I want some hard-ass rock that is more contemporary than Led Zep and things of that nature, EoDM is almost always the first place I turn.

Heart On, EoDM’s third album, is less super-kinetic than their first two, and as a result is a step behind as far as pure fun, but this is easily their most musically well-developed album.  This band is no longer my version of Top 40 (meaning music that I can listen to just because it’s fun but lacks any real depth).  Now they’re just a damn good band.

Eagles of Death Metal is by no stretch of the imagination a death metal band; it’s not really a joke name, just really a “you had to be there story”.  Whatever.  There are worse band names out there. (I’m looking at you, Portugal. The Man.) They’re a blues/roots rock band to their core, with the hard-charging guitars and their fairly constant set of chords that just beeeeg to be air-guitar’d.  Jesse Hughes adds that final bluesy piece – even though it’s bluesy, not blues, since, you know, he’s white and sounds white.  There’s no grit to his voice, just a lot of confidence and just as much strong falsetto.  Hughes used to spontaneously break into an “Elvis From Hell” impersonation mid-song (see “Chase the Devil” off of Death By Sexy), but that’s left behind on this album, sadly.

As far as musicianship goes, it’s rare you see a rock band this in sync with such a high level of play all-around.  Both guitar parts, bass and drums are all on fucking fire throughout the whole record.  In a way, it reminds me of Led Zeppelin or Cream – yeah, more like Cream, actually – because no part of the band ever really chills out.  Sure, one instrument will have the most attention drawn to it at a point, but multiple listens reveal that every part is still playing its ass off.  Really great stuff.  I especially noticed it in the last song, “I’m Your Torpedo.”

That song title brings me to another point that I didn’t mention back when I was talking about the band’s masculinity.  A lot of this music’s power along that vein is in its bare sexuality.  This is “I’m-a sex you up” music, only not in a romantic way – in a fantastically egocentric way.  The courtship is all about the grandstanding, not about the end result.  Pure, brash masculinity.

If you consider that the ideal of the band, then “(I Used to Couldn’t Dance) Tight Pants” would probably be your favorite track.  The guitar work is ultra-sexy here, and really, there’s not much more to say about it than that it rocks out ultra-hard.  It’s really ditto for the rest of the album, so I’m going to spare readers more song-by-song analysis at the risk of getting even more repetitive.  I’m actually surprised this album is so consistent; even Death By Sexy had one amazingly horribly annoying song (“The Ballad of Queen Bee and Baby Duck”), and Heart On doesn’t have it.  This is a surprisingly unified album, and works fantastically as a continuous listen.  I now know at least one album that’s getting played in the car rides home for Bump and Thanksgiving.

I’m going to see Zack and Miri Make a Porno tomorrow, so expect a review of that up pretty soon.