Combine

Norfolk VA (Caroline)
by Chaz Thorndike

When you combine (no pun intended) big name credits and industry frothing, you usually wind up with a very catchy college band that’s going to get dumped on commercial alternative radio and sell lots of records to people who actually believe everything they read or hear a DJ say. It’s usually a bunch of wind and the band is alright, but the push is what makes the sales. I’m a freelance writer that’s addicted to free CDs. I don’t give a fuck if this gets printed, I just wanted the CD.

Combine (accent on the first syllable as in farm equipment, not second syllable as in mixing winner elements together for the purposes of, say, making a few bucks) is a wild band from, you guessed it, Norfolk, Virginia. What originality they lack in these names, they compensate for in song titles such as “Chester Valley Sr. Prom 1962,” “Suckboy vs. the Hermaphrodite,” and “Care my Rage.” Then, of course, there’s the topic of lyrical content. Yup, they’re wacked. Most of the shit I can’t understand, but what I can is full of freaky incidents, delusional thoughts, and random observations. Creative chaos from sloppy-drunk hicks who live in a fucking swamp will obviously seem “quirky and off-beat” to linear-thinking journalists who really ought to get out of the office a bit more frequently. Resplendent with that quaint regional twang, this power trio plays hard, fast and loud. The big wigs of indie rock have decided this is good. Although I dislike them, I like Combine. Listen to it and decide if you do. End of “Review.”