Tub Ring - Secret Handshakes
Rating
RIYL
The Blood BrothersDavid Bowie
Shudder to Think
Release Date
08/31/2010
Label
The End RecordsTracklist
1. Stop This (NOW!)2. Bird of a Different Color
3. Gold Finger
4. Touching the Enemy
5. Burn
6. Cryonic Love Song
7. Feed the Rapture
8. Flash
9. I Shot Your Faggot Horse
10. Chronic Hypersomnia
11. Optimistic
12. The Day the World Will End
13. Tip of My Tongue
14. The Horrible and the Holy
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Tub Ring seem to have spent their entire musical career attempting to defy genre categorization. Originally a punk band, the trio have molded themselves into the sci-fi obsessed, spastic rockers they are today over the course of four full-lengths. On their fifth album, Secret Handshakes, Tub Ring spent an entire year recording and mastering the 14 songs until they captured “every element we had envisioned in our minds and hearts,” says keyboardist and producer Rob Kleiner. The end result is an album that is too quirky for its own good, rehashing the same formula on each song until it all blends into one paranoia-themed song after the next.
You know that guy at the party who is constantly laughing at his own jokes and repeating them over and over again? On Secret Handshakes, Tub Ring is that guy. While some of these jokes are frankly in bad taste (“I Shot Your Faggot Horse”), the others are mostly found in the music itself. The band seems to be so focused on using nontraditional instruments and creating an altogether odd sound so that the album ends up sounding like an unfocused, cluttered juxtaposition of random elements. Not that shifts in mood and atmosphere are unwelcome, but when a band relies on constant unpredictability as their only gag, the gimmick goes stale.
Secret Handshakes isn’t without its high points. “Stop This (NOW!)” and “Bird of a Different Color” certainly set the bar for the rest of the album, as they’re two of the most straightforward and fun tracks on the album. The band show their moody and melodic side on “Cryonic Love Song,” creating a nice break from the surrounding chaos. There is no doubt that Tub Ring are talented musicians, but it takes more than a mixed bag of tricks to make a memorable album.
--Jeff VanVickle
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