Brick Layer Cake

Whatchamacallit (Touch & Go)
by Jon Sarre

Todd Trainer is the drummer for Shellac, see? Ya probably should know them. He also played in Rifle Sport and Breaking Circus, ya probably never heard of ’em and that’s not a great thing, but ya could probably scour the bins at used record stores and pick some stuff up and be a better person for it, or at least more twisted. It’s how ya look at it that counts, but not to me. I don’t care so much about yer world view and I suspect that Todd Trainer cares not for yer or my world view, for that matter.

This Brick Layer Cake thing is all Mr. Trainer. He plays all the instruments. He’s also responsible for the creepy voice talking throughout the disc, which kinda sound like obscene phone calls from an obsessive serial killer who minors as a poet and he’s got Tony Iommi at gunpoint and he’s making him play pieces of riffs over and over while selected parts of early Sonic Youth albums playing at the wrong speed blast in the background (mostly just the feedback/tuning up as you play parts). If ya buy into it, it’s sorta “evil” sounding, tho’ not in the usual, I dunno, Trent Reznor or black metal “evil” sense. It’s a more organic evil, not one usually found in rock music, ‘cept in Steve Albini’s more misanthropic Big Black moments, or I guess Jerry Lee Lewis whenever. On the other hand, Brick Layer Cake is pretty much purposely delving into the creeps, but Trainer’s a method actor mebbe, so where’s the line there? You decide.
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