Liquid Spider Station

Firewhistle (Devil Doll)
by Scott Hefflon

I almost fell outta my chair on this one, and for once it wasn’t cuz the floor has a tendency to move in indirect proportion to the level of the bottle, my “trusty” assistant when previewing CDs. Liquid Spider Station – a mouthful of a band name, and one that I’ve yet to spell correctly without backspacing; Devil Doll Records – didn’t they put out something that mattered, um, once, a few years back? Bio reads: Band started in South Jersey as a Misfits cover band, played backyard parties, and has… yawn… sorry, what? After a couple kinda muddy-sounding songs that were kinda Misfitty, but with neo-punk/rock vocals (think, I dunno, Supergrass or Tripping Daisy or something), nice guitar fills and classic verse-bridge-chorus structure, there was a song called “Trust” that I had to listen to a couple times before moving on. Tres Misfits. While the others had strong, strong hints, this one might as well’ve been by the beefy bangs boys themselves. Much simpler than the rest, and therefore, much easier to throw yerself into. And the pseudodepth of the lyrics doesn’t get in the way as much. But it was after skipping over the next couple artsy, meandering songs with a good moment here or there that I got my shock.

“The Price is Right” is based on a chord structure no one in their right mind would write, and yet I stole it years ago from an ex-roommate’s ex-band’s song, figuring the band members probably wouldn’t remember the riff, much less anyone else. Solid Waste, ever heard of ’em? Thought not.

Surprisingly, it’s my ex-roommate’s band, and he plays drums… or guitar… or is that his cloned-self, Seth Granger? Whatever, it’s him, the Treude-monster. So it all falls into place. Good sing-along punk with too much “musician rock” in it for my taste (hence “ex” roommate: welcome to the joys of being a music reviewer and, um, kind of a dick), but some damn fine songcraftsmanship nonetheless. Jangle rock and whoa-whoa anthems side-by-side and a singer who too often reminds me of Rick Astley (there goes next year’s Christmas Card) and you have Liquid Spider Station. (The shagadelic instrumental bonus track is a classic Treude-ism – years beyond “Whiteout,” “Beer Fart Party Weekend,” “Dirty as Hefflon’s Butt Funk,” and “The Thesaurus Song,” the chemically-enhanced “creativity” of our college daze, lovingly recorded on four-track tapes and stashed where no one will ever find them.)
(PO Box 30727 Long Beach, CA 90853)