Straight up, the post office in my 'hood sucks dog dick for nickles. The other day I came home from work to find a parcel of compact discs shoved through the tiny mail slot with no fucking regard that there might be something of actual worth in there. Most of the time though, there ain't nothing of actual worth in those puffy envelopes, so I don't mind. Just more crappy promo CD's from major indies of shit I wouldn't play in the earhole of the nearest dead relative. But this padded manila held the newest jam from Allentown, Pa's Air Conditioning, something I actually wanted to take time out of my Henry Cow appreciation time to listen to. Luckily, the actual disc (entitled 'Dead Rails' and released on the Load label) and it's guts were left unscathed by the mailman's meanie paws and I gotta chance to preview the shit. The cover comes off like an homage to 'The Land Of Rape & Honey' and I got no qualms with that. Memories of roaring up the Pennsylvania turnpike blasting 'Stigmata' have been suppressed far too long! The rest of the booklet is stuffed fulla pitchers of burning homes and other such suburban vacancies that provide a very wise window into the world that surrounds the boys and visa versa. What does it actually sound like you axe me? Well, first off, FUCK YOU...don't speak to me that way. I'm a grown man and I deserve respect. But anyways...I'd say it sounds like A.C. are gonna hafta finally accept their unwanted crown as the finest heavy Psych band in our country...maybe the world? Opening track, 'Where To Litter/Trash Burning' is kinda what I expected from that Bad Trips record, but didn't get. Loud sounds roaring to be released from a tight, smokey space. Is this what it would of sounded like if Monoshock had heard Breakdown? Hmm... For some fucking reason, the vocal ranting of Robert Jurgensen poking through the din on 'Conclusions/Concussions' reminds me of lady Crass rantings ala 'Shaved Women'...Much like the Ministry memory mentioned above, nothing to be ashamed of. A quick moment of head slung atmospherics entitled 'I Run Low' acts as a breather and a bridge to the disc closing 'Accept Your Paralysis/Cephalexin', another chunker that makes my too-much-time brain swim in reams of unpublished/unpublishable/unformed thoughts on the subject of '74 era Hawkwind winding up at CB's in '88 on a Sunday afternoon. Yeesh...what a thought! Yeah, so most things these days that are described as being noisy/slow/sludgy/etc. make me wanna produce something noisy/slow/sludgy into the nearest commode. This does not... Hopefully that statement means something to you. If it does, great. If it don't, whatever. Nonetheless, I will be eating tuna noodle in five minutes and you won't.
Most Load titles are available through your local hip record shop, but if you feel the need to load (heh heh) Ben's pockets on a one on one basis, go to -- http://www.loadrecords.com/bands/airconditioning.html
Until then...bleech....
