MUSIC . One Track Mind

Hot Guts

"Did You Not Go to the Dance Alone?"

by John Vettese

Published: Dec 8, 2009


(CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)
My first thought, of course, is "Bela Lugosi's Dead." The b-side to the self-titled 7" debut from Philly misanthropes Hot Guts begins as ominously as Bauhaus' Goth classic: a kick drum pulse and pattering rimshot over a bed of drone guitar. Cue unsettling "Ohhhhhhm" vocals, presumably from a choir of exhumed Benedictine monks. A snare hit in the left speaker, then the right, and singing begins. It's total Peter Murphy style, a throaty baritone ruminating on wires wrapped around tongues before wailing a wordless chorus, but that's where the vampiric similarities end. The theme in "Did You Not Go to the Dance Alone?" leans more to a rhapsodized snuffing of existence, not death per se but inverse growth to days of bubbling protoplasm, or gigantic sea creatures; "We move in circles around the sun/ We once were old, now we are none." These existential concerns drive the seven-minute epic into a noiserock furor, where a kinetic krautrock beat, a chunky bass, a melodic guitar line and a screeching electric riff vie for control of some bleak primordial world.

Fri., Dec. 11, 7 p.m., $8, with Tickley Feather, Toro y Moi and Power Animal, Kung Fu Necktie, 1250 N. Front St., 215-291-4919, kungfunecktie.com.

Comments

If you would like to hear the song this guy is blabbering about, get the record here: http://badmasterrecords.bigcartel.com/
by badmaster on December 10th 2009 3:22 AM



Also In This Week's Music Section

All Over the Map
by A.D. Amorosi
A Sunny Day in Glasgow's Ben Daniels finds new pop gloom on the other side of the planet.

Wintry Mixes
by Patrick Rapa
Rating the sounds of this holiday season. Run, Rudolph. Don't Look Back.

Box Sets
Reconsider Me:
Cut Above
by M.J. Fine
The Slits' Trapped Animal

Music Picks:
Carry The Fire
by John Vettese
Sun., Dec. 13, 6 p.m., $24, with Toy Soldiers, Drink Up Buttercup, George Stanford (featuring members of Townhall), Birdie Busch, The Blood Feathers, The Great Unknown, Cowmuddy, Fantasy Square Garden, Hezekiah Jones, Chris Kasper, Lady, Joshua Park, Spinning Leaves and Aunt Pat, World Café Live, 3025 Walnut St., 215-222-1400, worldcafelive.com, iourecords.com/thefire.

Music Picks:
Dragonzord
by John Vettese
Sun., Dec. 13, 8 p.m., $5, with Netherfriends, Jams Dean, Chang Chang and Ruinit, The Ox, Second and Oxford streets, myspace.com/theoxphiladelphia.

Music Picks:
Mark Stuart and the Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash
by Mary Armstrong
Sat., Dec. 12, 10 p.m., $10, Tin Angel, 20 S. Second St., 215-928-0770, tinangel.com.

Music Picks:
Composer Portrait: Tim Berne
by Shaun Brady
Fri.-Sat., Dec. 11-12, 8 p.m., $15, Philadelphia Art Alliance, 251 S. 18th St., arsnovaworkshop.org.

Music Picks:
Remembering Jack Rose
by Patrick Rapa
Her Jazz with Maria T, Fri., Dec. 11, 6-8 p.m., WPRB, 103.3 FM, wprb.com, herjazz.org.

Music Picks:
Fanfarlo
by K. Ross Hoffman
Thu., Dec. 10, 9 p.m., $12, with Freelance Whales, Johnny Brenda's, 1201 N. Frankford Ave., 215-739-9684, johnnybrendas.com.

 
 
ADVERTISEMENT