Black Grease

The Black Angels "Black Grease"

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McCULLOUGH's MP3 OF THE WEEK 009: 04.24.2006

Title: "Black Grease"
Artist: The Black Angels
Album: The Black Angels EP
Year: 2005

Boy, The Black Angels sound awfully familiar to me. What was that band that I listened to incessantly throughout high school and college? You know, that one that dressed in all black, invented the heroin chic and played long droning fuzzed out rock jams? Oh yeah, the Velvet Underground they were called. Well the obvious comparisons aside, I really dig this track.

Maybe it's that fuzzed out guitar that carries the song. Or maybe it's the wicked drum fills. Perhaps its the signature call back line "So just kill KILL KILL KILL!". That's probably it. "Black Grease" boils over with a quiet rage for four and a half minutes, and that's what I like to hear in my rock n roll. I think this is what the Brian Jonestown Massacre would sound like if they didn't suck shit. It's not surprising that Anton Newcombe (from BJM) played with them during their showcase at South By Southwest. Perhaps he wanted to learn how they do it.

From the looks of the Black Angels' webpage, they are bearded and greasy, with the exception of two girls. It actually took me a while to figure out they were girls. All their band photos have that black and white posterize effect so you can't really tell who's who. Hey, what do you expect from a band that thrives on being cooler than you?

Apparently this is a band that I missed while I was in Austin. The reason probably being that they're FROM Austin, and I was warned to avoid local bands like the plague while at SXSW. Next year I might not heed that advice.

theblackangels.com