Blood On The Wall - Liferz

Blood On The Wall
Liferz
(01.2008, Social Registry)
Verdict = Muscular Indie Rock

For some time now I have had a yearning for the straight forward grit and grunge produced by late eighties and early nineties indie rock. Something about how its united blown out urgency and drifting slackery was just the cat’s meow. Everything now-a-days seems to be just outside of this broken perfection. It’s either much too produced or overtly under produced. The absent middle ground has seemed to be a part of the largely missing fun in modern indie music. It is for this reason that Blood On The Wall is such a wonderfully welcome breath of old air. Reverting back to the days of incredible indie rock songwriting that wasn’t worried about the hipster sub-genre that it reached, the Brooklyn band embodies everything that is wonderful and pure in rock music. On Liferz, the follow up to their sweltering kaleidoscope of a debut, the band has cut the filler and tightened up their attack to produce a perfect hallmark to the days of yore. Without missing a step in their pro/regression, the bands heavy handed drums churning guitar squalor and alternating male and female vocals continually appease. Everything about the release is chiseled, grinding and, ultimately, a complete blast to listen to. It kind of depends on the mood though. I don’t know how to properly explain this except to say that about 8 times out of 10 I love this record, but occasionally it just comes off as tired. You should probably discard that, but I felt like telling you anyway. Feeling completely unruly (with the assistance of the brilliant “Sorry Sorry Sarah”), I am going to skip naming all the dissonant indie staples that should probably find themselves in this review and go ahead and randomly give a nod to Sebadoh. Whoa…sorry, this album just has me in such a wonderfully unwieldy mindset that I just lost myself there in ancient indie nostalgia. The real beauty of what Blood On The Wall have created is that it’s an album that you don’t have to think about to like. Void of pretense, Liferz is an instant classic from start to finish.

-Mr. Thistle

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