The first few howling feedback bars of the opening title track to Carbohydrates Hydrocarbons might get you to thinking “oh yeah, OK, another garage/shitgaze band, some bunch of kids cloning The Stooges”… and sure, The Blind Shake do make a simple noisy racket. But once Michael Yonkers starts singing, it’s plain to hear we’re not in retread territory here.
No sir – Michael Yonkers is the original article. Yonkers and some buddies decided to try their hand at this crazy rock’n'roll thing way back in the acid-drenched days of 1968, or so the legend has it, sawing bits off his guitar to make it sound more harsh before shoving its sound through homebrew stomp-boxes of dubious provenance. A record deal was in the offing but fell through, leaving Yonkers to carry on playing and gigging in cheerful raucous obscurity… until being tracked down by De Stijl Records nearly three and a half decades later. Then Sub Pop re-released the same lost album and catapulted Yonkers into the halls of weirdo-rock semi-notoriety.
His second record since then, Carbohydrates Hydrocarbons sees Yonkers teaming up with Minneapolis noiseniks The Blind Shake to make… well, to make a record that sounds like Iggy Pop kicking the shit out of the Grateful Dead and stealing their clothes before parading around the place and ranting in curiously confident but slightly addled non-sequiturs. It’s a clangorous blatter of an album, with The Blind Shake laying down a reverb-soaked wall of sandpaper surf riffs over a simple rhythmic framework while Michael Yonkers twangs, narrates and wails over the top.
If you’re tired of hearing vocalists who all sound like ProTools clone tracks of one another, then Carbohydrates Hydrocarbons will be a breath of fresh air. Because Michael Yonkers doesn’t sing like anyone you’ve ever heard, unless you hang out in some pretty crazy places. Whether you’ll like the way he sings is a different question, of course, but if you’ve ever got a kick from listening to a shameless old hippy with a slightly modified consciousness raving oddities at the staff of your local library, then you may find tunes like “Here’s What I’m” and “When Will We” have similar effect.
Don’t be fooled, though – there’s the wisdom and cynical humour of experience lurking behind Yonkers’ loony-tunes delivery style, along with the liberated vibe of a man who takes his music very seriously, but who takes himself not at all seriously. That said, I suspect that, were it just Yonkers alone, Carbohydrates Hydrocarbons would be a lot less listenable than it is; the taut discipline of The Blind Shake gives him a strong platform on which to stand, and makes him sound like a rediscovered treasure rather than a forgotten also-ran. Even if the vocals aren’t quite your cup of mushroom tea, noiseniks and shoegaze aficionados may want to stick around for the effect-mangled soundscapes like “This One Again” or “Down To A”.
No major label would ever bankroll a project involving Michael Yonkers, but I think that’s possibly what I like about Carbohydrates Hydrocarbons best of all. The economic pundits keep telling us that the future of music is the intimate live show, and character is a vital component of a good gig experience. And while he may not have a silky voice and a rack full of harmonisers (let alone the haircut-du-jour and white studded belt), Michael Yonkers has character up the wazoo. So next time you fancy abrading your ear canals with some wild-eyed psychedelic garage rock, give the old guy a shot. He’s sure to surprise you.
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Posted in Music reviews |
Tags: Carbohydrates Hydrocarbons, garage, Michael Yonkers, noise, psychedelic, punk, rock, The Blind Shake
