There is a caustic, angry, and somewhat aimless feel permeating Swear to Me that convinces me that Brainworms is a good name for the band.
They remind me of a lot of 80s punk where the band does one dissonant thing while the singer goes off into his own world. Every so often the two different styles converge, bringing a powerful nexus as a result, but in the meantime what you hear is a meandering wall of anger. The record generally utilizes this approach in every song, but Brainworms keeps from redundancy with an instrumental track in the middle and Whatever, Thats How You Get Famous, in which singer Butler begins the song with a spoken word delivery that falls between Jello Biafra and Lee Raback of Warsawpack, continually speeding up until the song is a beautiful clusterfuck of frustrated noise.
Butler comes across as a sweaty, ranting madman and I imagine a lot of broken items flying through the air while he howls into the mic like an ADD David Yow. For as little range as he shows as a singer, the songs differentiate themselves very well, relying not only on the records arrangement, but also the rhythm sections ability to steer the angling guitars in different directions. The guitars remind me of Big Blacks clangy style, but more relentless and violent, with Small and Trache doubtlessly having thick calluses from beating their instruments for such an extensive amount of time.
It can be a bit overwhelming to take in this much sonic violence, as enjoying it takes a keen listen, but the payoff is worth it and Im definitely intrigued to see them live. Besides, if you dont love the song title Vulgar Display of Flowers, you either have no soul or you didnt own any Pantera cassettes when you were thirteen. After listing to Swear to Me, Im pretty sure that these guys did.
Brainworms hail from Richmond, VA, a city with a rich hardcore/punk history. So its not a surprise that the members of Brainworms have made waves with several other bands. Which ...
Posted Aug. 11, 2013, 9:23 a.m.
Pre-fest for Fest 12 has set their schedule online. In addition, the 4 day event from Oct. 31-Nov. 3 has announced still more bands: Sleepytime TrioRVIVRDiarrhea PlanetThe Last (featuring Bill ...
Looking for the SPB logo? You can download it in a range of styles and colours here:
Click anywhere outside this dialog to close it, or press escape.