Pleasure Forever – Review

Pleasure Forever

(Sub Pop)
by Jon Sarre

I dunno why they changed their name to Pleasure Forever… This SanFran trio usedta be called Slaves, and before that, they basically usedta be the VSS, who did silly and sometimes pretentious (but okay) noisy art rock stuff. This new incarnation is more into 4am-type mini-epics which sorta ebb’n’flow like on “Any Port in a Storm” over to The Doors’ “Whiskey Bar,” only with more key sounds. Pretty much all quietly loud, quietly quiet, back to quietly loud, then stop’n’go’n’the next one starts off and goes into a similar structure: piano rumbles, light drum spanks, guitars droning like Thurston Moore rumble and when they rock out like on “Meet Me in Eternity” (even with The Turtles chorus), they seem like indierockdom’s answer to The Smithereens (were they indie rock? I never cared enough to find out). Then the guy sorta goes back to mumbling with the rest of the band repeatin’ “rise” a buncha times, okay? Then they rock again. “Stay Precious” sounds like Nick Cave only wrestlin’ a bit more with his fans’ pretensions (cuz, y’know, some days Nick’s probably like “I hate these wankers”), like he only really wanted to write cowboy songs or somethin’. The jazz slap drumming on “Curtain Call For a Whispering Ghost” keeps me from bein’ reminded of The Styrenes (cuz that’s where I keep hearin’ that damned virtuoso piano’n’drone guitar!). In fact, once ya dip yer feet in, Pleasure Forever is actually quite, uh, pleasurable, which is much different from the initial listen I gave it (and quickly mentally tagged the mofo as plain borin’). It’s alternately pretty’n’ugly’n’sometimes pretty ugly (or ugly pretty) and I think I’ll be throwin’ it on the next time I smoke pot while I watch the sun come up in a snatch-pink sky.
(PO Box 20645 Seattle, WA 98102)