The Birds of Satan


Ladies and Gentlegerms, i give you hands down the most morbid album i have ever encountered. Not in terms of content, i might need a second post to get to the listening part, but in terms of coincidentally running across it while shopping for records. I'm of course referring to the untimely death of Taylor Hawkins earlier this year. 

Hawkins had a ridiculously amazing career from local bands to Alanis Morissette's touring drummer, to voluntarily leaving that gig to join Foo Fighters, to filling in for Chris Pennie on Coheed and Cambria's Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume Two: No World for Tomorrow (jeez that's a title and a half) recording and tour, to Foo Fighters' total domination of mainstream Rock, to being in that horror movie Foo Fighters made. He died in Columbia in March. We won't speculate, he had a known heart condition and a lot of various drugs in his system, said heart noped the hell out. That's not the morbid part, that's just mundane reality. The morbid part is that his one-off 2014 side project assuredly jumped to the top of some list of albums projected to sell like crazy now that he shockingly died, and some purchasing exec said "makes total sense" and ordered a truckful. Now here i am about to listen to it because i went "ooh, he recently died" like the gluttonous consumer tool i am. Dude in his pajamas doesn't look excited about tomorrow's itinerary, does he? I still have one more day of not Monday, so i'm fairly chipper at the moment.

Anywho, let's fish those empty beer cans out of the pool and take a swim. Hopefully this opening ballad will clear up the mysterious identity of these so called "Birds of Satan." Right off the bat it has a serious Queens of the Stone Age vibe. Oh, ok, the title track is like a suite of various styles, that's cool. 

Not gonna lie, i have no idea what the hell Side A was about, but damn did it rock. If you just played it without any other information i'd swear Josh Homme was involved in some way. I can't summarize any of it, it just has to be experienced in all its manic ADHD awesomeness. They're literally correct, "the pieces of the puzzle fit, but i don't think i'm getting it." Maybe Side B will help? 

Nope, Raspberries is twice as math-rockingly confusing, what with its out of nowhere Power Pop chorus. Out of tune acoustic guitar, yes i see (i don't see), do go on. The only question i've got is my standard "what the hell am i listening to," and yes i do want to know the answer. Wowzers that was a curveball opening to Wait Til Tomorrow. Harpsichord and Queen style multitrack choir, it's definitely an ending. 

Alright, best i got, i think the guy on the cover is having the hangover from the night of partying that is this album, and we catch up to the present for the final track. I can't tell if that ending sound effect is a door slamming or a cleaver chopping off his own fingers, or just his forehead smashing into the table, but it is certainly definitive. 

In the end, i know 2 things. 1) i like it very much, 2) i have no idea what the hell i just listened to. If you have some idea, i'd be glad to hear it. Two thumbs up, hopefully neither gets chopped off or broken.

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