Switchhitter
Academy
Framed!

In the middle of a most horrendous headache hangover day (a Sunday in fact), I decided to put on the first release from local thud and skree weavers, Switchhitter. Now leading up to this occasion, I had plenty of commentary from bar music purveyors, who compared the trio (?) to things such as Gang of Four, Scratch Acid, and Shellac.

One thing was certain on opener Shakytriggerfinger though. Amidst the arrhythmic scratches of guitar and thyroid-popping drum hits, this was the perfect anti-aspirin. On the phone was agreement. "Yes, they are headache-inducing more than alleviating," a well-wisher yelled in my ear. And even the brief synth respite offered on Queen for a Day turns into a temple tapping irritant, bleeding into yet another crushing blast that is nowhere near something like Big Black's Headache, but is closer to the funnel-cake in ascrebic acid funhouse slab of Shellac's At Action Park. Which is to say that the doodles and blobs of pounding bass hits and squealing electricity fry up in all the right angles and piles on the paper plate. Now frog legs, they are the perfect cure for a headache, especially in the bright noon sun of Emo's at night.

Copyright © 1999 Andy Beta