I've been focusing pretty heavily on late 70's/early 80's European prog for the last couple weeks, so here's a little dose of American avant-garde progrock from the 90's, 5uu's Hunger's Teeth.
Formed in the late 80's by prolific drummer/composer Dave Kerman (who also runs the experimental music haven known as Cuneiform Records), the 5uu's sound is a dense and complex one, bringing to mind the later noodlings of bands like Idiot-Flesh/Sleepytime Gorilla Museum and earlier pop nightmares a la The Residents, but with one foot firmly planted in the whole RIO/Zeuhl thing. I hate terms like "experimental", but 5uu's are just that, running through a ridiculous montage of found-object audio samples, electronic weirdness, barbershop vocal arrangements, dissonant keyboards, and meandering ambience all in one cacophonous, razor sharp crescendo of weird time signatures, punk-jazz expressionism, and haunting melodies.
By the way, that's a DUDE singing (except on the last 2 tracks).
Download HERE
Purchase HERE
Dave Kerman/5uu's/Cuneiform Records website
Somehow I've avoided listening to them so far because I guess I'm a bit wary of bands that also run influential labels, you know, the fear of vanity projects. Also, shitty name.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting though, the closest reference point is - perhaps unsurprisingly - The Thinking Plague (great name), who have a couple of bona fide classics in their discography, if you haven't investigated, I wholeheartedly suggest "In Extremis" and "History of Violence".
It'll take a lot of listening before I have another opinion than "interesting", but thanks for giving me the opportunity to listen to them.
Word up. I've been listening to quite a bit of Thinking Plague recently, too. The 5uu's/Thinking Plague ties, both musically and personally, run pretty deep.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, horrible name.