Freshkills – Creeps and Lovers – Review

freshkills200Freshkills

Creeps and Lovers (Arclight)
by Craig Regala

“History, history, who’se bitch are you?” “No one’s. Wake up and see the new dawn, fucker.” Freshkills utilize the simplistic strangled groove the Brit-post punkers Gang of Four, PiL, Au Pairs, and The Pop Group stapled together in ’79 out of fucked up blues rock/funk enough to make a “new” rhythmic signature that’s been a big influence this decade. There’s enough commonality between this and others who may get pulled along in the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs wake as they ride pop tunes and a marketable singer up the charts. I’m for it. It’s a good record and I’d like to see’m. The promo material references Drive Like Jehu, and I’ll simplify your life and say yeah, they got that duck in a row.

So, creeps and lovers jerks “this ” rhythm/feel back and up through 35 years of hard rock, from crank-shot garage hum feeding off The Who’s tension/release, to art gush front provided by early Roxy Music to Scratch Acid’s pinned-down free-spazz rock, to the “Chicago school” (sign) of ’88, all painted with that aggressive veneer anyone’s mom would tag as “very Touch & Go, and an aggressively good opener for Queens of the Stone Age.” Look, if the moms are on it, you should be on it, right?
(www.arclightrecords.com)