So, this band, The Sun Chips, asked me to kindly review their . . . um, album.
Due to it's short length it's more like an EP if you wish to slap a record medium on it.
But anyway, what's going on here?
Lo-Fi immature experimental drugged-out high-pitched humorous genre-changing avant-pop.
They even use a drum machine.
Though, not only catchy, which is usually the last thing I look for in music, it's actually quite nice musically.
There I said.
I dig these guys.
Though I hate to do it, but for review transitional purposes I must, and if you haven't already guessed from my genre description above, these dudes sound a lot like Ween. Mang.
Incidentally, they even come from the same small town as Ween - New Hope, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Yes, my hometown as well.
And as Gene Ween, the lead singer from Ween, once stated - every young boy should have a baseball bat and a 4-Track.
Like so many other bands before them Ween opened a whole generation of kids up to making weird-o bedroom music on their 4-tracks. This was before the home DAW boom. Actually using the idea of the 4-track as part of the performance. Usually late at night and high on marijuana.
Many times conquering up audio collages of musique concrète, free improvisation, song form, and a lot more on a single 60 minute old cassette tape. With goals for it to go no further than within their circle of friends.
The Sun Chips definitely have the same vibe going here. And they do it so well.
There is something magical about younger people doing this. It is true experimental music. Figuring out everything as they go along - the anti-professional music. A lot of these recordings are extremely creative due to the fact that many of the kids making them are not what many people would call a "musician". That's the beauty of it!
In my eyes a 14 year old misfit boy holding up a hobby as a 4-trackist is much more inspiring than a child of the same age practicing old music on piano everyday and attending lessons once a week.
A lot of places around the world had seen the rise of bedroom recordings: Stevie R. Moore from Bloomfield, NJ - Davy Walklett from Yorkshire - Ghédalia Tazartès from France - Ju Suk Reet Meate - Azalia Snail - Gary Wilson - Hasil Adkins - Magical Power Mako from Japan started a who new thing with his home experiments and we can't forget the who German Neue Deutsche Welle (NDW) tape scene.
So, go download their album.
Get inspired or inspire a younger dude to record some nasty bedroom music.
It's a wonderful hobby!
The Sun Chips, my hat is off to your playful weirdness.
-OnionPalac
Further discussion on this release and artist can be found HERE.
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