Bis

Intendo (Grand Royal)
by Jamie Kiffel

When a band advertises a “selection of rarities and b-sides that have never been released domestically in the U.S.,” that should be enough to set that early ’90s wallet chain into its first ever live combat assignment: instant lock-up action in your pocket, creating a massive metal tangle that will withhold your cash until you are well out of range of said “rarities” compilation. Bis‘ latest release, Intendo, is such a release. This is the record company trying to eke out a few extra centimes until the band gets its act together enough to squeeze out a new cash crop. There is some punk here in the form of a running beat and scrubby guitars roughed over with chanting, football field rah-rahs. ’70s-style synthesizer tricks, including spacey machine bleeps and megaphone vocals, top lyrics such as “I am a computer and I dance like metronome,” occasionally veering into Talking Heads territory with dysfunctional syllables stressed in all the strangest places.

I enjoyed Bikini Kill at one time for its menstrual maliciousness and blood-gorged rag rants; the same girl gripe quality is in whining singer Manda’s unintelligible squeaks, but where Bikini Kill had a crazed humor for all its man-eating madness, Manda’s yelps are just irritating. If anything, they are memorable, but only for their rare, small bird-killing frequency. Save fifteen bucks. Set up a Fisher-Price tape deck, toss a small child off a spring-loaded rocking horse, hop on and start squeak-bouncing away to the tones of the shrieking tot. The aural results are the same and you will be giving a child valuable life experience to boot.
(3218 1/2 Glendale Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90039)