Whoopi Sticks – “We Are Spunk”
This is crazy. This is wild. This is fun.
These are the first words, my first impression, I jotted down on facebook while first listening to this EP and these are all the words I should write, or I would write if I was being concise.
I’ve seen this band since its’ inception and though I can’t say I’m totally impartial- I think this EP is great and even better than anytime I’ve seen them live.
I’m amazed at the intensity, emotion and anger in these songs. Lindsay Warning, the lead singer, seems to me to be an amalgam of Johnny Rotten and Kathleen Hanna. I review some pretty, intense heavy metal and hardcore at times and this seems to match up to any of it.
What’s more amazing to me is its’ production. While most bands I review do a straight, unadorned demo (which is understandable), I can clearly see that a lot of thought and effort went into realizing this sound and it succeeds perfectly in its’ effort.
This is a band I can’t really categorize except to say it’s punk influenced with bits of riot grrl, surf, no wave, garage and whatever else the dogs dragged in. I know this is the most original material I’ve reviewed this year and I’m thinking it may not be surpassed. And I could say it’s full of energy, full of anger and joy but I think I’ll stick with crazy, wild and fun and see if you agree with me.
“The V-Gus” starts with David HD doing a megaphone like line warning Lindsay about Las Vegas against a pulsing bass line and soon, an imitating guitar line while David tells everyone to panic. Then a tom-tom bongo jungle beat incites a guitar to descend its’ strings, scratching into a vocal that breathes riot grrl anger and punk abandon grit. Along the way there are rhythmic changes, near hysterical vocals, buzzing guitar licks and background vocals that are projected into outer space. This song combines early LA punk with riot grrl with euphoric madness- ripe with exasperated ecstasy, extended to us to be taken internally. As the songs energy expands and increases it ends with the carnival barkers spoken word plea, rolling in once again, “Enjoy your trip to Vegas.” A totally unique and wonderful destination if it equals this song or this band.
This is a child’s unconscious movement that causes you to laugh, an animals reaction that is so pure you smile in amazement. I refuse to accept a life that doesn’t accept an art so pure. ‘Cause this is crazy, this is wild, this is fun.
I wish there were no words. A world without words. I wish there were only feelings, that were transcribed from my heart to yours. I wish I could think and you would truly see and feel and know all that I feel, that I feel I have to tell you. I don’t want to talk about it…but I don’t want to be a person no more.
With a guitar sounding like it would be right at home on The Damned’s first album or in any good sixties garage band, “I Don’t Wanna Be A Person” explodes with an energy that is vital, contagious and unstoppable. “People have a need to be.” With the rhythm section hidden in the mix and the guitars scrapin’ above and the vocals electrocuting us with high voltage venom velocity- this song sounds like a long lost Stooges number circa ’73. “I wanna be a tree/ I wanna be a bench/ I wanna be a stump/ the open field by that fence.” This song is just bursting with frustration and passion and rocks and kicks and beats with the wallop of a enraged alligator’s tail.
After a short drum introduction, “Hedonist vs. The Subjective” ignites with some violent vocal outbursts till a more subdued, dirty, gritty, garage guitar riff saunters in followed by one cleaner, better dressed one in a higher range. “You wanna drink a drink?” Of course, I do. As the agitated vocals ask accusingly. This song is brimming with anger, intensity and energy-pulsed insanity. This is some spunky punk, punk full of spunk, guts and passion that cums inside your ears instead of some more conventional body orifice.
I think the best song on this EP is “I Don’t Wanna Be A Person” and I can relate to that. Following the current Presidential race, I can see why someone would want to distance themselves from the human race.
With the senseless waste and cruelty we create, unlike the other animals we inhabit the planet with. The grasshoppers certainly won’t destroy the earth but the humans have the capacity and possibility to realize that.
That being said, I’m so glad to be a human and so glad to be witnessing what I do today. The young in music, in politics, in society are so inspiring to me that I don’t feel I’m expiring even though I fear my expiration date is due. I still feel I want to run with the young ones, at least, as long as I can.
This band, this EP makes me want to be a person some more. Because what I hear is so full of energy and passion and creativity that I know it expresses the best of what I hoped and tried to be. I know that it expresses the best of all I ever believed in, all I’ve felt, all I’ve thought.
All I’ve expressed and loved and lived. All I ever wanted and desired and wanted life to be. Not just in music but in the whole picture of life and this is a great representation of what you are, what we are, what we stand for.
All I believed in is still living on. All I dreamed and believed in is in this EP and in this music scene that I write about.
In the eyes that read this, and the hearts that feel this and the minds that think this…
This is crazy, this is wild, this is fun.
This is me.
(Slimedog)
