No Gods, No Music Theory! --- General Disregard --- 2015 (Tristan Geoff)
This is decidedly not my forte, garage/punk rock, so expect a scathing review, though I'll do my best to be objective. To be fair, there are only five tracks on this, though one has such a ridiculously long title I'll be shortening it to two words (you can read the full thing, if you wish, on their bandcamp page, and let me tell you, it makes Fiona Apple look like she's abbreviating hers!), with some of them struggling to reach even one minute, so it shouldn't take long.
Open your mouth and say “Aah!” This may hurt....
The opener is called “Kinda new fang cover but not really”, which means nothing to me. As Tristan noted and accepted, the production values are in the toilet, lodged somewhere near the S-bend, but then I don't think punk or even garage rock is about pristine sound, is it? All I really hear is a grinding guitar doing a kind of a boogie, with some very basic drums, and if there's a vocal there I sure as hell can't hear it. This is the “epic” track, clocking in at two and a half minutes, and to be fair it's not bad, though there's little I can point out about it. Sounds like a jam. “234” is a whole fifty-six seconds long and has a sort of folky/Country feel with even some harmonica. I'm fairly sure I can hear vocals but I have no idea what he's singing. Maybe he needs to buy a microphone! Seriously, it's impossible to make out. Again it's basically a jam.
“White trash anthem” is at least a good title, and has a nice grinding guitar line leading it, sort of reminds me of Mick Ronson's seventies work with Bowie in places. The long-titled track, which I'll just refer to as “My dad”, starts off with a nice chunky guitar sound, but it's pretty low in the mix, then another one squeals out and it's a little better, though not much to be fair. I see Tristan is actually the drummer here. I can seldom separate good drumming from bad, so I'll say he can certainly keep rhythm, but whether he has talent as a sticksman or not I couldn't say. Oh, he also does that harmonica on the earlier track. The final track is “REM with a fuzzbox” and it trips along nicely. Of course the production is what lets this album down, as it's really impossible to hear if there's any good musicianship going here (I think there is) so it's a pity General Disregard didn't wait to do it properly. The legend on their bandcamp page says this was all done in one take with little or no planning. It shows, guys. It shows.
TRACKLISTING (I'm not going to do ratings, as it would be unfair, since I can barely hear most of what's here)
Kinda new fang cover but not really
234
White trash anthem
My dad...
REM with a fuzzbox
Rating:
(Get some decent production and we'll talk about a possible higher rating).
You can hear the album here:
No Gods, No Music Theory! (2015 Demo) | General Disregard