There’s a great quote from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: “Bazooko’s Circus is what the whole hep world would be doing Saturday nights if the Nazis had won the war.” Well, razorbloodz is what all the indie kids would be listening to if the Germans had won the culture war, and Kraftwerk had ushered guitar bands out the door for good.
It’s DIY in the most literal sense, but also as a broader aesthetic. There’s something bizarrely satisfying about keyboard synths and tinny electronic beats. In stripping away the jangle of the guitars or the wavering hum of a lightly-struck piano note, all that remains is a sonic etching, a set of notes placed in stark relief. It’s almost aggressive in its efforts to slice away the overtones, to cut apart the conventions. The result is a form of music that feels unstuck in time – just a half-second out of phase. It’s right there in front of you, but ghostly, vaguely unreal.
Of course, this underlying current takes different forms. “Roe v. Wade” is a swirling storm that blows out the doors of a church and lets in a howling wind to accompany the organ. It’s unbalanced, cacophonous, and yet unfailingly melodic. “(Everything I Know About Gender Theory I Learned from) Mrs. Doubtfire” on the other hand is a more traditional pop song, featuring the closest thing they have to a hook, and a surprisingly sturdy beat.
If you live in the Northeast, they’re playing in Hanover on April 28 at Fuel.
Mrs. Doubtfire – razorbloodz
Roe v. Wade – razorbloodz
I would also be remiss in writing about razorbloodz to ignore my favorite of their cover-bands, Tortüred Pünchlinez, who put together a vaguely disturbing and thoroughly awesome video for their version of “2g1c”: