Let me start by saying that I’m not too sure what the hell is going on here. Let me follow that up by saying that despite that, I love it. Why? Well, it is everything that the current music scene needs. A band making music without regard to fad or fashion, genre or expectation, zeitgeist or record labels prompting – what’s not to love? Surely, the only way that music moves forward is because people are willing to head off in new directions, romp through sonic pastures new, jump demarcations, hop genres, mix and match, demolish and rebuild. “Birthday Boohoo” is the sound of all happening…at once.
Dead Tooth takes a galloping beat and driving slashes of guitar, manic vocals, and the same sort of sonic chaos and musical claustrophobia that marked The Jesus Lizard out for greatness. They then soak this all in manic saxophone salvos—brass attacks at the opposite end of the spectrum from the usual soulful serenades that the instrument is associated with. This is the sound of the saxophone as an instrument of war!
The result is both bewildering and brilliant, disarming and delicious, wrong-footing and right on!
And just for good measure, the single comes with a suitably seasonal haunting remix, courtesy of A Place to Bury Strangers…very cool indeed.
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