Disco de Blonde Redhead: “Blonde Redhead”

I love how it starts. I love how you're thrown immediately into the opaque smoke of a dark, empty club. There's some screaming, and suddenly you're on the Sonic Youth Express into the tunnel voice of Kim Gordon. But I'm not criticizing - it's the same and yet different, SY but with better songs. If you could mix the best parts of "A Thousand Leaves" with "Dirty", here's where you'd be. Floating, falling, colliding, and repacking your chute with extra fat bass strings for the next trip. As with the Youth, it is the songs that stand on their own. It wouldn't matter who played them, they'd get any crowd throbbing. Unexpected bridges make you forget the chorus you promised you'd always remember, and suddenly the song is fading. Happy / sad, swirling in a marble cake of feedback and vocals, express the only true anguish ever heard in a rock song.

Of course this band's early art-rock drew tons of comparisons to early Sonic Youth, some of it completely justified. Although the singer eventually grew beautiful in her voice, here on the groups first disc she often mimics Kim Gordon's terrible talk-sing style, albeit with a little less nastiness inflected upon her delivery. Add to the mix mostly distorted guitar work centered around the sometimes pretentious lyrical delivery and it was easy to dismiss the band as another NYC wannabe. Even though it took a while to show, there were quite a few hints here that this band would continue to intoxicate with melodic commitment, despite being consumed with the noisy aspects of their blossoming career.

can't escape the Sonic Youth comparisons when talking about Blonde Redhead...that's just how it goes. this cd comes across as a young band trying to emulate their guitar abusing heroes, but there also seems to be some elements of Can (who sonic youth also love). the sound here is okay. but the songs don't fare so well over time. i bought this cd when it first came out because i was intrigued by the band's name. i listened to it a few times and i've pulled it off my shelf once in awhile and it always just seems kind of "there." there are some interesting moments of good tension and dynamics as in "Mama Cita" and "Swing Pool." but those kind of moments are overshadowed by the face that another NYC noise rock band (can you take a guess who?) have done it all before bigger and better.