On today's mix...
Fuck Buttons - Street Horrrsing (2008)
Holy Fuck - LP (2007)

Is it just me or do indie bands tend to cannibalize names to delirium? Whether it's Wolf Parade, Wolfmother, Wolf Eyes, Frog Eyes, Deerhunter, Deerhoof, Crystal Antlers, Crystal Castles, No Age, No Kids, Cool Kids, Black Kids, Black Keys, or Black Lips, it can get a little confusing. Emerging in the middle of this clusterfuck last year, then, were the experimental, mostly instrumental rockers Holy Fuck and the Fuck Buttons, ready to prove to America that two expletives do make a positive.

I'll start with the more abstract noise of the Fuck Button's debut Street Horrrsing. Music like this is difficult to critique except to say when all the loops, repetitions, and feedback entrance and when they don't. It's most of the time here, and the first half of the album grips the listener. Opener "Sweet Love for Humanity" lulls the listener into a dreamy security before piling on fiery feedback, slowly building in noisy intensity to extraordinary effect. The brief "Ribs Out" is a monkey-house themed delight. And "Okay, Let's Talk About Magic" is the album's dark epic, thrilling and rich to the end. Until this point, Street Horrrsing seems destined to become a classic, but it loses its hypnotic hold midway on "Race You To My Bedroom/Spirit Race", an overlong palette cleanser whose blank feedback seems to go nowhere for an unfortunate length of time. Perhaps Fuck Buttons are something of a Rorschach test for how one listens to music, but it's a relief when the album returns with the relatively more melodic, forkcasted "Bright Tomorrow". But though this bright track does its best to suck you back in with its grimy turn around the four minute mark, it's not enough to overcome the previous track. And similarly, when closer "Colors Move" returns to the zoo noise, it feels a little fatiguing rather than refreshing. Fuck Buttons are obviously a band to watch and often brilliant, but Street Horrrsing feels frustratingly uneven.

Coming after this, Canadian act Holy Fuck--winner of cute-as-a-fuck-button Rachel Ray's SXSW approval--were a refreshing change of pace. With their shorter, easier-to-follow songs, they're more readily accessible, though not quite as satisfying. The star of their music, of course, is their goal of creating electronica without computers, and it's a philosophy more bands should consider, as the results on LP are unusually striking. Though they make use of plenty of synthesized noises, this still feels much more exciting than other electronica, and LP stands as a testament to the way that designing music through a computer can really suck the life out of it. Most of the songs here follow a palatable build-and-climax structure, and it's routinely successful. But though they come close with "Lovely Allen", Holy Fuck never quite hits it out of the park. As with the Fuck Buttons, Holy Fuck are obviously a band to get excited about, but LP does leave you wanting just a little more. Not that I'm complaining.

Street Horrrsing: 8/10
LP: 7/10