Loudspeaker

Re-Vertebrate (Another Planet)
by Jon Sarre

For reasons which are unclear to me, these NYC-by-way-of-California-and-England post-no-wavers send my rock-crit peers scrambling through their record collections for their fave indie noise-mongers. Loudspeaker‘s been compared to Pussy Galore, the Jesus Lizard, Jon Spencer, the Swans, Helmet, and my personal favorite hyperbole (courtesy of Alma Zurrar of Puncture), “the Laughing Hyenas mugging Black Sabbath in Central Park” – whatever that’s supposed to mean. Maybe their pedigree – one ex-Crucifix, one ex-Dust Devil, one German guy, plus past associations with one former Pussy Galorer (Kurt Wolf) and one future Boss Hogger (Jens Jurgenen) lead people to assume that Loudspeaker must be the second coming of Live Skull or something along those lines. If this were really the case, then Re-Vertebrate wouldn’t sound like Mr. Bungle playing through Sonic Youth’s equipment. Loudspeaker has more in common with funk than punk, noise, or hardcore, and as far as the grooves go, they’re pretty soulless. Technical competence without creative spark or intensity (i.e. the ability to rock out) simply falls flat, which is essentially what happens here. Rumor has it that lead guitar plucker/singer Matt Borruso used to take music lessons from Joe Satriani. That would explain a lot.