The Blood Brothers - Young Machetes
Rating
RIYL
The BeatlesDavid Bowie
Kill Me Tomorrow
Q and Not U
Tracklist
1. Set Fire To The Face On Fire2. We Ride Skeletal Lightning
3. Laser Life
4. Camouflage, Camouflage
5. You're The Dream Unicorn!
6. Vital Beach Listen Listen
7. Spit Shine Your Black Clouds
8. 1, 2, 3, 4, Guitars
9. Lift The Veil, Kiss The Tank
10. Nausea Shreds Yr Head
11. Rat Rider
12. Johnny Ripper
13. Huge Gold AK-47
14. Street Wars/Exotic Foxholes
15. Giant Swan
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The Other Tie
By Kamran Rouzpay
Once upon a time a boy dreamed that he would one day become a mighty rock critic. He ate his vegetables; prayed before sleep; and he brushed his teeth twice a day. Well this boy grew big and strong in just a few short years. Soon, he began to write reviews, hear thousands of bands, survive nu-metal, suffer through metalcore, hate Ryan Adams, then love him, then hate him again. Then one day, he heard this divine band release a serenely magnificent album called Easter, and declared it one of the best discs since the double-aught. However, he also mentioned another…
This other was not just any other competition, though. Easter’s father, These Arms are Snakes, had five – yes, five – evil brothers who formed the Blood Bros, the most violently unstable collection of mad scientist musicians in the Seattle, Washington area. On the same exact day TAAS birthed Easter, the Blood Bros unveiled their secret weapon: Young Machetes, a perfect chemical balance of cheerfully dark pop gems and medulla oblongata-melting hardcore – Easter’s only true threat.
In the past, the Blood Bros found immense cult and media affection for its brilliant projects, most notably, 2003’s experimental-hardcore Burn Piano Island Burn, and 2004’s sullen chaos Crimes. While both were exceptional projects, the Blood Bros planned to unveil their true masterpiece in 2006 with Young Machetes. Taking the best qualities from both previous successes – not to mention the earlier March On Electric Children – the Blood Bros compiled the sounds, and the impending doom came as a subtle, enigmatic duality: a hardcore-pop album and a poppy-hardcore album.
“Well,” you might be saying, “which is it you crazy old coot?” It’s both. Young Machetes is a double-threat. Even the poppiest components, like “Lazer Life,” “Camouflage, Camouflage,” “Spit Shine Your Black Clouds,” and “Lift the Veil, Kiss the Tank,” contain some of the most delicate psychosis known to man. The always-on-edge Blood Bros constantly sleep with one eye open – always paranoid and anxious, even when resting. And just when you begin to think Young Machetes lulls into a slumber, the Blood Bros sadistically awake from hibernation with the sole intention to shock your senses. Still methodically catchy – verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus – and infectiously melodic, the Blood Bros still manage to hit every nerve and emotion through a “jungle of erections,” as Jordan and Johnny would put it. This is the hardcore-pop aspect of Young Machetes.
The other side – the darker side – of Young Machetes is a bundle of overheated dynamite waiting, building for the big explosion. Instantaneously, the public is barraged from “Set Fire to the Face on Fire” – the project’s initial eruption. An even more frenzied onslaught comes from “You’re the Dream Unicorn,” “Vital Beach,” “Rat Rider,” and “Huge Gold AK-47,” keeping tension high and blood boiling. Still, the project’s most effective element is “Skeletal Lightening,” a brutally contagious composition with tortured screaming hooks, grooved gritting guitars, and punishing precise rhythm. You may be wondering, “How can my toe be tapping as fast as my heart is beating?” The answer is simple: This is the poppy-hardcore aspect of Young Machines.
The Blood Bros are savagely intelligent; and what’s even more dangerous... they know it. Young Machetes – along with it’s equally brilliant but conversely motivated brother-project, Easter – found itself among the highly selective double-aught elite. It is a perfect, auricular experience, and resistance is painfully futile. As Blood Bros frontmen Johnny and Jordan would say, “Death is death, no matter how you dress it up.”
The End.
Comments
Cleveland, OH
Scene Point Blank / Escapist Records
Columbus, Ohio
Recommending: Anberlin, Interpol, Chamberlain, House of Heroes
Tucson, AZ
And John, if you think this sounds likes noise, well...go listen to the new Skullflower disc. It'll make you yearn for a BB album.
AZ
www.myspace.com/arcoftheaurora
St. Louis, MO
~Tom
The Silent Ballet: The very best in instrumental and post-rock reviews and coverage.
Sheffield
Queens, NYC
DeKalb, Illinois
I agree, I saw them open for Coheed and their performance gave me the impression that it was the manifestation of sonically deficating in someone's ear.
Sorry, I can't get this band either, same thing for IMA Robot. The music just sounded like a giant jumble of noise and feedback. Something that Thom Yorke would come up with on a budget of $215 and a box of generic burritos.
Maybe I'm being a little too rough there, but on which one!?!
Clearly they do have a fan base and people do like their music, so I'm not going to say they're a terrible band, but going to go out on a limb and say they are the kind of band that you'll absolutely love or absolutely hate and you will know right away how you feel about it.
Cincinnati, OH
Olathe, Kansas
Cincinnati, OH
Different people, different opinions
The Great North Woods
i don't know what you're bitching about; i think all your reviews are pretty accurate.
Darla Farmer
RIYL:
the Beatles
Tom Waits
Murder By Death
A Whisper in the Noise
the Blood Brothers
Tuscaloosa, AL
yeah, i don't think it sucks for the readers because i have enough faith in our readers to believe that they know these are opinions and not facts... it's senseless to bitch though, you're not going to change anyone's opinion on a disc... i fully stand by my He is Legend score and I can understand why Kam gave this a 5... good for him for doing it.
Florida, USA
Creative review though.
PA
That's because the blood brothers are fucking horrible.
Tucson, AZ
St. Louis, MO
I'm gonna disagree with you here. Most people (including myself) that I know who like the Blood Brothers start out hating them with a passion. And then, all of a sudden, something clicks, and the music, that beautiful horrendous screeching melodious music suddenly makes sense.
~Tom
The Silent Ballet: The very best in instrumental and post-rock reviews and coverage.
Manchester, England
how utterly, utterly asanine.
edit- loved this record. this band always delivers.
San antonio, Texas
Going to have to agree with that statement....i truely was annoyed by this band when i first heard them....but the more i listened to them, the more i got into the music.....Its a band that takes repeated listens to get into
The Great North Woods
and CLEARLY you didn't get the point of this review. CLEARLY i'm bored with writing standard reviews, and CLEARLY i wanted to take a new angle.
how it happened with me.
Darla Farmer
RIYL:
the Beatles
Tom Waits
Murder By Death
A Whisper in the Noise
the Blood Brothers
Anytown USA
Way to make your first post here so meaningful....way to go champ!
You play to win the game.
San antonio, Texas
First impressions are always ur last!!
....sorry been watching to much "Frasier"
:D
Leeds, England
Florida, USA
Utter shit
Noise advertised as music
Anal sex with men
Converge