Friday night at NYC's most perfect venue, Don Pedro, put on your hardest-looking stance, drop your pants and inhibitions in preparation to be viciously rocked into verbal incompetence by the likes of two great bands that just don't come around often enough. First off, Brookline, Massachusetts' inimitable and unruly Tunnel of Love are nothing less than devastating as a live unit as anyone who's witnessed them can attest. Just as any other caged animals would react, they burst through the gates with raw meat hanging out of their mouths and blood dripping from their chins. All of their records are equally essential with their serrated and catastrophic cover songs included (check out their devastating cover of "Paint It Black" to hear what the apocalypse will really sound like), and give the Boston Area enough credit to overrule any over-bloated left-coast supremacy theories in one filthy swipe. The mongoloidal formula is truly at it's apex with Tunnel of Love and they continue to collect accolades across the discriminatory board as the pinnacle of primitive rock'n roll perfection in this day and age. And it will take more than just goof ball antics, caveman outfits, and dumb haircuts to usurp their monstrous presence at the top of the food chain. It's just too bad their records aren't more accessible, but keep looking as Tunnel of Love actually do translate well in their recorded format, and it's more than worth your while to hunt them down.
Along for the soul-shredding ride is Perpignan, France's brightest and most seductive poultry pulverizers, Sonic Chicken 4, on their maiden American voyage through the heartland. With a virtually unknown batch of already classic 7" EPs released over the past couple years on the Nasty Product label, stateside, they finally caught the ear of In The Red Records who will have their debut LP released within the next few weeks. Sonic Chicken 4 includes bass player Slaine from The Fatals, yet steers far from that band's scorched-earth Memphis garage territory in lieu of a jangling, more organic, later 60s-era Kinks template intertwined with throbbing VU-strapped rhythms and those enchantingly harrowing keyboard tones that suck you in, and beat you blissfully into submission. Possibly the best French band going in this straightforward style, it would be a crime to miss this chance to see Sonic Chicken 4, so clear that boring schedule and do your laundry a day early so you can take a well-deserved nose dive into their enthralling and life-affirming racket as they give us this fleeting opportunity to catch them live. Look for them next week throughout select cities in the Midwest as well, and do whatever it takes to not pass them up! And don't think that you'll be just sitting there like a bump on a log between sets either as special guest DJs Tim Warren of Crypt Records and the ever-lovable Thing With Two Heads DJ team bring out the beasties and play the hardest ass-shakers known to upright-walking homosapiens in a juiced-up setting that should set off party alarms all over New Yak City within the first hour the doors open at Don Pedro.
check out a video clip of Sonic Chicken 4 from 2005 courtesy of laflaque right here...
