#17: An 18th century solution to a 21st century problem
#17: An 18th century solution to a 21st century problem
Dick Move; Zero 9:36; Gary, Indiana; Deathfiend Baphomet
The Settling in for Another Goddamn Lockdown Edition…
Dick Move
I stumbled upon Dick Move while researching the band Swallow the Rat because they’re playing a show together—a live show in an enclosed space with actual people. How is that possible? Because it’s happening in New Zealand. You know, the country that had a coherent COVID-19 plan that its citizens actually followed? New Zealand bands can tour! Here in the Los Angeles, we’re on the verge of revisiting the strict stay-at-home order we endured this spring. But hey, you can’t put a price on freedom! What’s that? Oh, 260,000 dead in the U.S. alone? I guess you can put a price on it. What were we talking about again? Right, Dick Move, who self-identify as “socialist party punk” dedicated to “shouting across oceans from the bottom of the world about things that matter, in a thick kiwi accent.” Vocalist Lucy Suttor doesn’t even try to rein it in—nor should she—but she sounds delightful even while raging through songs like “Slut/Wife,” “Stag Dudes,” “Pissing,” and “Femoids Attack.” Those songs appear on the new Chop!, Dick Move’s debut full-length, whose title track is described by the band as “Catchy AF Agitprop about the abusiveness of capital. Dick Move are offering an 18th century solution to a 21st century problem.” Man, those kiwis have everything figured out.
Zero 9:36
Admittedly I’m not in the trenches of music journalism like I used to be, but have people grown nostalgic for nü metal? Because all I could think of while streaming Zero 9:36’s “The End” was “Limp Bizkit with Eminem on vocals.” Other songs I listened to veered into more respectable Linkin Park territory, but they still earn a hard pass from me. The music does most of the talking for Zero 9:36, because little information about him is out there, other than he’s a dude from Philly who bubbled up in the city’s hip-hop scene as Zero. He added “9:36” to his name at some point for reasons I can’t unearth, and last year he released an EP with a cover that pretty accurately reflects its contents:
Zero 9:36 is so new that he just got his very own merch for the first time. Behold, a square that also happens to be a T-shirt!
To dig a little deeper, Zero was the first signing to the recently revived Atlantic imprint ATCO Records, a label that’s existed in fits and starts since the 1950s. The man who signed him is Pete Ganberg, a veteran producer and A&R guy who got his start working with Vanilla Ice on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III soundtrack. People are probably nostalgic for that garbage, too.
Gary, Indiana
Hot off the press, Gary, Indiana comes to me from BNB super friend Josh Modell, who frequently forwards me press releases about bands with questionable names. And Gary, Indiana is a questionable name, especially when your artsy noise trio hails from Manchester, England. How artsy? Vocalist Valentine Caulfield talk-sings in her native French while bandmates Scott Fair and Liam Stewart create an overdriven, quasi-industrial racket that’s as abrasive as Caulfield’s voice is soothing. The press release goes on:
Entirely self-produced with minimal mixing and deliberately recorded in industrial spaces that speak to the raw intensity that is integral to the trio’s music, the band also draws on both the macabre filmmaking of Gaspar Noé and Leos Carax as well as the influence of old videos on MTV2, VH1 and Kerrang, paying specific attention to the way visuals lend themselves to create a deep dive into a whole new world.
Gaspar Noé meets MTV2—that about covers it. Because Gary, Indiana is a new band, they haven’t done much in the way of interviews to address why they chose to name themselves after northwestern Indiana’s infamous shithole. That sounds really harsh—until you drive through Gary on I-90, which is elevated to prevent anyone from making the mistake of stopping there, and you’re like, “Oh, I get it.” John Robb at Louder Than War speculates the band was inspired by the Shellac song “Gary,” which is possible—people who make music like this probably appreciate Shellac (as we all should). That seems unlikely. Until someone interviews Gary, Indiana, and they give some inevitably disappointing answer for why they chose the name, it’ll remain a mystery.
Deathfiend Baphomet
It’s been a minute since we’ve checked in with satanists, so say “Heil og sæl” to Deathfiend Baphomet, who my brain keeps wanting to read as Deathfriend Baphomet, which I like even more. Here’s what Deathfiend have to say for themselves on Facebook:
Satanic incantations of the blasphemic archaic legions below the testimonial erebus of the shadowed triangle circling over the land of morbid triumphant witch-spells !
Baphomet, the band’s pagan deity namesake, looks pretty scary, except that it was completely made up. Not in the “annoying atheist from your dorm railing about the opiate of the masses” kinda way, but legitimately invented by crusaders 1,000 years ago to torture Muslims. Nevertheless, Baphomet caught on with occultists, and satanists even funded a statue of it a few years ago to protest public displays of the 10 commandments (+1, satanists). Death Fiend is also the title of an unreleased demo by dark metal OGs Hellhammer, and it’s apparently a character from some World of Warcraft offshoot. Important tip:
Summoning Requirements: Bring the Blood Mask and 15 Red powders to the rune where Mad Clown spawns and use Mask.
Just in time for the holidays, Deathfiend Baphomet released Spells from the Infernal Kingdom (on Goat Necromancy Productions), an EP that continues the group’s fondness for florid song titles like “Into the Realm of the Crimson Moon,” a lesser follow up to “Majestic Masquerade of the Rising Empire” from last year’s Wraith of the Gods. Actually, nearly all of Deathfiend Baphomet’s song titles sound like they originated in the journal of a morose goth teen: “Macabre Winds,” “Evocation of the Nocturnal Lord, “Into the Absymal Pantheon,” “Black Wizard of Impurity,” and so on. Sadly, I can’t find lyrics anywhere, but I bet they’re as purple as this goth color palette.
POST-SCRIPTS
There wasn’t really anything interesting to say about Swallow the Rat. Their new album is pretty solid, though. It’s psychedelic indie rock with elements of bands like Treepeople and Pavement, and the vocals remind me of something that I can’t place.
Dick Move guitarist Justin Rendell was also in the bands PCP Eagles and Shitripper. I give the former a six and the latter a 10. Well done.
I started to include goregrind band Putrid Pile in this month’s edition, but they’ve been around for 20 years, so they’re disqualified. However, the song title “Bowel Batter” made me laugh out loud. Their Facebook page also made me chuckle.
I like the three songs Gary, Indiana has released, by the way. If and when they ever come to the States, I’m going to pitch a story about taking Gary, Indiana to Gary, Indiana. I can already smell the fumes from the chemical plants!
Gary calls its airport Gary Chicago International Airport, because it’s a short drive from Chicago, which is a place people actually want to visit. Appending “Chicago” to its name always struck me as desperate yet endearing—an infamously run-down city drafting off one of the nation’s great cities. I believe the airport’s main attraction for a while was the short-lived Hooters airline. But GYY has moved onto bigger and better things, like the 2018-2019 Balchen / Post Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Small General Aviation Snow and Ice Control Category!
Man, Gary got hit hard in this. Sorry, Gary.
