Wolf Eyes Human Animal by |stan.|

Wolf Eyes is not the sort of band you listen to if you like music. They strike me, rather, as the sort of thing you might have playing in the background while brutally murdering your family with an axe.

They do make music in the broader sense, inasmuch as they create vibrations in the air which are then picked up by the timpanic membrane in your ear, either directly (should you be present while they perform) or indirectly via some sort of prerecorded medium. But somewhere in this otherwise normal process (which I have dubbed “hearing”), something has gone horribly wrong. You see, Wolf Eyes makes noise music.

For the uninitiated, noise music is exactly what you'd think something called “noise music” would be, except for the part about “music.” Which is not to say that it's bad, just that it's not accessible in the ways which you might expect music to be. For example, in place of rhythm, there are high-pitched squeals which make you want to carve a hole in your forehead with a rusty spoon, and instead of melody, you get what sounds like a drunk high school marching band stumbling through a dank earthen maze. But it sure sounds bad-ass when you're so stoned you can't manage to get up and turn the stereo down.

Which brings me to my next point. Noise music should be played loud, painfully so. When I saw Wolf Eyes headline the Wooden Octopus Skull Experimental Music PFestival 2006, I wore my Etymotic earplugs. These things chop twenty decibels of volume off the scale like a crazed butcher on PCP who's just found out that his wife has been fucking the postman. With these things snugly in place, the Wolf Eyes show was just on the wrong side of uncomfortably loud. Describing the show as “loud” is an understatement on the same scale as saying “the sun is hot,” or “the Grand Canyon is big.”

The CD doesn't quite live up to the presence of the live show, but it's acceptable as a reminder of the night you were permanently and tragically rendered deaf. I urge you to sally forth, purchase tickets, and blow your ears, then buy CDs and blow your speakers.

Posted by usounds at October 24, 2006 08:03 PM | TrackBack

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