« Neptune and Aeolus' winds | Main | forest love songs, from a birch to a maple »
December 15, 2005
statues melted roses blighted
Blood Brothers - the Butchery (Metronomes) [outtake from the "Crimes" sessions]
"Crimes" ended up as maybe my retroactive favorite record of 2004- I listened to it for the first time in March of this year, bracing myself for something that I thought would be composed entirely of blood-curdling screams and guitar-killing. But of course I was dead wrong; I mean, OK, "Crimes" does have some of that, but it also has moments of whiplash melodies and lyrics that make you want to stop, rewind, and listen to every track until you've got the words down pat. See for example the totally unfuckwithable 'Love Rhymes with Hideous Car Wreck'.
'The Butchery' is from the sessions the band did for "Crimes", and it's a crazy goddamn shame that this was left off the album. Although I can see where it might have been too similar to the title track (just listen to those drums- they are the slower, dirtier, more insensate cousin of the vengeful percussion on 'Crimes' [the song]), the Blood Brothers (arguably) still could have made this work. Every element in 'The Butchery' seems to only work within a variable of the verb "creep": the drums crawl, the bass slinks, even the mandolin (or what sounds like one in the chorus), in a very unmandolin-like move, seems to snake its way into the song, covered in dust, stitched up along its sides, grimacing in pain.
Johnny Whitney handles the vocal duties in the verses on this one, lushly and beatifully describing a landscape of fire and violence, a burnt purple swath of waste, populated by skyscraper-burning children and shrieking businessmen. It's a pastoral ode written in the middle of a ground-scarring battle, the attention to detail is so striking: "so watch the trees/swaying in the breeze/keeping beat to the butchery". It's gorgeous, in the strangest, best way.
Buy "Crimes" here, and look out for the Blood Brothers split EP (w/Liars) of Doors covers here (soon). Also, the band has a (pretty great) remix they did of Gang of Four's 'Anthrax' for download on their media page.
Posted by Kevin at December 15, 2005 12:51 AM