Modey Lemon

Thunder + Lightning (Birdman)
By Brian Varney

Another one o’ them blasted two-person no-bass groups, though this one at least has the good graces to avoid the whole deconstructionalist blues/boogie thing. There’s really not much of a way to describe what these two young fellas do except to say it’s definitely their own. Charged-up and spastic in a way that makes me think of the first (and only) time I saw Brainiac live back in the early ’90s, well before they had a full-length out, when they played ten of the most decimating minutes of music I’ve ever experienced despite the fact that the guitarist knocked herself out cold by jumping and hitting her head on the club’s low ceiling at about three minutes into the show.

Modey Lemon are young and full of themselves, so the hyperactive spuzz angle makes some sense, plus they seem to have put enough thought into what they’re doing that the racket they make is pretty well-harnessed. The drummer (either Phil or Paul, I don’t remember and I’m too busy trying to breakdance in my chair to bother looking in the booklet) is a stone motherfucker, exactly the right beast needed to fill out the extra space left by the bass’ absence. The other guy sings, plays rhythm guitar (that means no solos), and a Moog, some other keyboards, and some freaky effects that make a fried-tube maelstrom like the one at the end of Pere Ubu’s “30 Seconds Over Tokyo.” Good songs, too, my current favorite being “Enemy,” which’ll not only make you wanna break something, but also has prominent cowbell playing. It’s tough to ask for much more than that from any song.
(www.birdmanrecords.com)