There is no better uplift from the dread that colours our nation's dour perspective at the moment than !!!'s new album, dubbed Strange Weather Isn't It? While most of the bands that poke at the world of dance music do so in a very tentative, cute manner, Chk Chk Chk menaces. With only four albums in 10 years of making music, everything they release is bound to be thought out and intentional, like all art should be They also emerged out of New York at a point where folks began witnessing a rejuvenation of punk throughout the city, with bands like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Death From Above 1979 and LCD Soundsystem making sounds more rhythmic and colourful but no lag in energy. Chk Chk Chk seemingly came out champion of the noise dubbed dance punk and they've been on a tear ever since. Strange Weather is their fourth album and its a furious joy filled onslaught of a darker but grander, more imaginative colour than anything they've ever done, mostly due to 1. the fact that it was recorded in the notoriously dark atmosphere of Berlin and 2. the death of best friend and drummer Jerry Fuchs, who tragically died from falling down an elevator shaft in Brooklyn. Even with the serious undertone the party still hasn't gone anywhere, its actually been nurtured by life's trials and tribulations and flourished into a sonically expansive dystopia of Groove & Lash. The album's philosophy can get hammered down to the natural world's basic principles of motion. Every action has an equal but opposite reaction. The demands of bad day makes you want to dance even harder. But the most interesting experiences can't ever be summed up so simply...
Los Angeles and you're poolside, propped against the glass balcony watching the orange glow lazily settle itself over the horizon line and give way to the blinking city lights glittering down below. The party's underway but a touch to the tongue a while back has removed everything casual from merrymaking happening around. The folks carousing about all fashionably in the evening's easy breeze can't tell the difference, even in conversation but life's suddenly turned heavy. Sunglasses try to hide the extent of fear suddenly realized, as the regular patterns of the social and physical landscape have fallen by the mind's wayside, replaced by the most terrifying mind explanding tsunami of psychedelic energy. Mortality and mindless social hullabaloo fall by the wayside as the timeless cosmic vein of consciousness slowly pauses in its transmissioning through millenniums to bless the now verdant mainframe that was once your mind. Another beer finds its way to you but this hardly registers as the onslaught continues. Thoughts and fears from the material world flash by and then dissolve as you slowly ease into the higher dimension. Your circadian rhythm slows to crawl, like an astronaut teetering at the edge of black hole. A smile creeps on your way as the picture clears and the beautiful view of time and space reveals itself. The shimmering hardly dims but slowly through dizzying array of colour, you feel a faint pulsation far off yet growing. Letting go of the rail, you slowly glide through the evening's revelry and towards the tango. Under the hazy lights revelers move in tandem, disciples of the music's ponderous radiance. Your synesthesia reads purple. Strange weather, isn't it? The distance seems vast at first but in truth, fear's end is never out of reach. Pretty soon, the rest of the beating hearts catch wind of the conscious oblivion floating about and join suit in dancing through the never ending quest for the treasure of the elusive present moment...
Indeed, the darker elements of the album reveal a more intentional element to the band's perspective, a departure of sorts away from the grand old party, fun for fun's sake feel of their first three albums. With steel drums, thick strands of reverb, a soul lady singing backup and a new lazersharp focus on top the same old dancing fury, Strange Weather slays without a dash of irony or indecision. There might not be any club ready anthems or a radio friendly chorus, but I believe that to be the point. Since all you need to sell an album is a single nowadays, nobody bothers with making a concise album. Plus, psychedelia isn't really concerned with melody, notes or chords. It's a feel thing, something way beyond the ears, hands or mind that looks to capture the attention of bodily existence. That's right there is what needs to be loved in this album. I was beyond blessed to see them play on my birthday up in Louisville with the very best people in the world and it was a slamming evening to cut loose and lose a mind. They played Me and Guiliani Down By The School Yard. Two gals got in a fight and Wheel Wright got bled on. Holy smokes alive, a night of pirate paradise alive with party, pillage and plunder.
That's what Strange Weather is about, in a moment. Highlights abound: the guitar breakdown in Wannagan Wannagain, the chorus of Steady As The Sidewalk Cracks, the tribal feel of AM/FM and the entire four minutes of The Hammer, which is a jam like non other. They've always had the best song names too. Even Judas Gave Jesus a Kiss? Good lawd have mercy, that's just the best. Do your soul a favor and tune in. Okay for now.
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