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| The Boredoms - Z Rock Hawaii (with Ween) |
| OK,
we're cheating a bit here. Z-Rock Hawaii is not wholly a Japanese rock
release: it's a collaboration between the American infantile
jesters/geniuses Ween, and the Boredoms. We're also, admittedly, a
little Boredoms crazy at the moment: this is our third Bo-based review
in the last month. But hey, why not ride the wave and shine the light
on one of the most baffling, challenging, and overlooked releases in
both legendary bands' catalogs? After all, it's hard to imagine anyone
disliking Z-Rock Hawaii (or at least, anyone who would be interested in
any project involving the personnel.) But it's also one of the WEIRDEST
releases that any of these people have put their name to, a spastically
uneven, ludicrously disjointed, utterly hilarious, and yes, catchy
collection of songs that defies pretty much any sort of explanation one
might hazard to foist upon its 11 tracks. I remember telling a friend of mine about this record, and his reaction was one of incredulity: "JESUS. Does it sound like anything?" Hell yes, it does, but it's not the sound that makes it remarkable. The truly amazing thing about it is that it runs screaming to the very limits of coherence, teetering on the edge, yet never goes over. Every track is beautifully self contained, arranging its laundry list of bullshit into severely twisted but immediately accessible forms: "Piledriver" is, like the title suggests, a testosterone saturated metal jam turned up to eleven, eventually overdosing on its bravado and becoming a muffled, industrial dirge. There's no poetic license in that description at all: both elements of the song project the essence and immediacy of their style, even in their highly distorted state. "In The Garden" is instantly recognizable as cocktail jazz, but mashed, buried, and mangled to the extreme. It's truly impressive how completely ridiculous things get, yet still remain clearly identifiable. Which isn't to say the whole thing is a genre goof. "God In My Bed" is a darkly sinister pastiche of funeral trumpet, Druid chants, and "Maggot Brain" style pronouncements from on high, whipping up an genuinely unsettling atmosphere. "You want me to tell you how my day was? God was on my bed when I got home! That's how my day was." Ridiculous as it is, it's...convincing. "Tuchus"...well, it's hard to say exactly what "Tuchus" is. Boredoms mainman eYe makes creepy cooing baby noises as the Ween boys sing a sea chantey underwater, amidst electronic farting noises and backwards noise. It just kind of drifts along, content with its sonic stew, ending when it feels like it. Through it all are calmly tossed off spoken word interjections, sounding like they're coming from an old Jewish man, all revolving around the word "Tuchus." "Tuchus. You got a nice tuchus. I like your tuchus. Nice tuchus. Everybody's got a tuchus. Touch my tuchus." Which brings up the next point: Z-Rock Hawaii is HILARIOUS. While there are unsettling moments, like the aforementioned "God In My Bed," the majority is absolutely hysterical. Recent Boredoms material has been so glowingly, spiritually transcendent that it's been easy to forget what smart asses they were: this is a band, after all, whose first EP consisted of three songs, all incorporating the word "anal." Ironically, this is most apparent on the two most straightforward tracks on the album: "Bad To The Bone" (yes, that one) is a deadly straight cover, and a pretty good one, with eYe's trademark freaked out yapping injected at strategic points for maximum impact. That gets a chuckle, but it can't hold a candle to "I Get A Little Taste Of You," which is possibly the most hilarious single track that either of these bands have released (which is really...REALLY saying something.) A gentle, frisky tune that could fit right in on the Lawrence Welk show skips along brightly, with eYe's screamingly inappropriate barking jumping in where the accordion solo should be. It's the musical equivalent of starting a food fight in church. Once the surface hilarity dies down, as it always must, what lingers is the singularly amazing fact that these two icons of insanity somehow managed to not work together so much as fuse, creating a genuinely original, balanced unit from two very distinct pieces. The Ween sound may dominate slightly at first blush. due to the boys taking the lions share of the (coherent) vocals, but the music is clearly the kind of sonic splatter that made the Osaka group (in)famous. My friend's question...does it soundlike anything?...is a valid one, since it's easy to imagine these two tearing each other apart with their cracked energy. That they somehow managed to not only coalesce, but harness the resulting chaos is nothing short of incredible. Z-Rock Hawaii is fated to be a footnote, an afterthought for two of the most original and bizarre catalogs of the last 20 years. It's a pity, since it stands on its own beautifully, a demented whirlwind of humor and deeply creative sounds that deserve wider recognition. |