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I like this song a lot, but it's probably my fifth or sixth in order of preference from this new Wild & Inside LP. I liked the first album a lot, but this second album is even better than I expected it ever could be.
I started the February 17th AFS blog/podcast with a feature about it....
Leading off this week, we get a sneak preview from the upcoming Eat Skull LP--Wild & Inside--due out this spring on Siltbreeze. As I'm writing this, I'm listening to it for the fourth time back-to-back-to-back-to-back, AND THE ONLY WAY TO EXPRESS HOW BRILLIANT THIS RECORD'S GONNA BE IS TO USE ALL CAPS AND EXTRA EXCLAMATION MARKS!!! This totally exceeds my lofty expectations! There's a couple more songs from it on their MySpace, and I'm not gonna spoil the real surprises by playing certain other songs on upcoming AFS shows before the record comes out. But suffice it now to say that this record's dripping in picture-perfect pop brilliance more so than even the best individual songs of their 2008 releases. There's still some crucial anthems and wild rides--"Nuke Mecca" being the obvious 80's HC touch (is that an accidental re-write of "Breeders" by L.D.S.?)--but all of these songs reveal the songwriting to be uncommonly strong, and every little "weird" extra is absolutely purposeful (including field recordings from a busy kitchen and a to-die-for chorus sung by what sounds like a kids' choir). There's even moments of true beauty in the final five songs, which hang together just perfectly! If you're one of the naysayin' message-board trolls that say Eat Skull has typefied "weirdpunk" as too often "weird for the sake of weird" (I know I've read that more than once), I dare say that YOU need to let this one under your skin. In his fascinating interview in the new Z Gun, Dan Melchior talked about some of his favorite records of the past which he described as "haunted pop": Roy Orbison, darker moments of the Beach Boys you'd never hear on oldies radio, and so many records bearing the mark of Joe Meek or Phil Spector. I swear that Wild & Inside even captures that vibe. Is it live or is it Memorex? How about whether it's anachronistic or timeless? Not that it's a competition or anything, but this sets the bar really high for the rest of the year. 'Bout that new Z Gun...I intended this playlist to be a listening companion to this excellent new issue of the best music print zine since...since?...before the internet happened, I figure.
It's been two months and dozens of listens since then...I still stand by these words, and I'm still very enthusiastic about listening to this album nearly everyday.
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