TLOBF Loves…Dark Meat

26 May 2008, 09:00

I have a confession to make. My name is Ro Cemm, and I am addicted to big bands. It started when going to see Godspeed!, moved on to following the Polyphonic Spree round the country, and then to begging the End of The Road people to bring over a then unheard of 26 peice twee pop band from Sweden going by the name of I’m From Barcelona. Throw in The Young Republic (12 piece when I met them) and Sons of Noel and Adrian, and I think it is fair to say I have a fairly strong habit.

Imagine my delight then when I stumbled across Athens, GA Dark Meat then. Here was a band who, depending on numbers changed even the length of their name. While Dark Meat is the core band section, they have also gone under the brilliant/ disgusting ‘Dark Meat and the Vomit Lasers Family Band’. Another act to come out of the Orange Twin community, a 150 acre Eco-Community near Athens, which provides support for artists by providing an affordable place to record and sell records, artworks and the like. The band feature members of other Orange Twin residents Olivia Tremor Control, We Versus The Shark and Elf Power amongst its masses.

The sound then: imagine Speedo from Rocket From The Crypt infiltrating the Polyphonic Spree, and converting them to his good time, larynx shredding rock n’ roll with horns sound, but then letting the horn section indulge in their love of Ayler, Sun Ra and Free Jazz. Phew. Song after song the horn section bellows out and drives along the organised chaos, the joyful, sing along rock and roll and beckons in the good times, with no doubt a whiskey or two into the bargin. If the bands debut album, ‘Universal Indians’ (released on the Orange Twin label in 2006, but shortly to be re-issue by Vice), was all like this, it might perhaps become old hat. However, halfway through they throw in the deliciously titled ‘Angel of Meth’, by far the ‘cleanest’ cut on the record, which comes on all Phil Spector drum lines and glorious nearly-there harmonies and some fine pedal steel. As for the title, there’s more where that title came from, see ‘Assholes for Eyeballs’, or the shout-at-the-top-of-your-lungs ‘Well Fuck You Then’. Predictably, they follow this with more RFTC meets the Stones rama-lama on ‘One More Trip’, which seems to take the idea of ‘Sympathy For The Devil’, and mix it with some sour-mash and some moonshine and see what happens (for the record there are even some ‘whoo-oo-oo’s on it’).There’s even time to fit in a droning, sitar laden psychedelic workout into the mix as well, swirling round into near white noise by the end of the record, the saxaphones squeal, bells jangle and a glorious mess of noise brings the record to an end.

If the photos from their flickr account are to to be believed, the live show is quite something to be seen as well. Having bought Universal Indians in late 2006, and telling as many people about it as I could, I still keep going back to it, and am glad that hopefully more people will get to listen to it thanks to the forthcoming reissue.

The lead track off Universal Indians, ‘Freedom Ritual’ is available to download over at Vice. Do yourself a favour and have a listen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FY6U3vsbejM