Album review: Woven Bones’ ‘In and Out and Back Again’
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Chicago’s premiere garage and nouveau psychedelic punk rock label, HoZac Records, has finally unleashed its summer releases. Along with seven-inch singles from Texas’ youthful Fungi Girls, Windy City bubble-gum popsters Sleepovers and a mind-numbing, gut-churning slab of psych-punk wax from the People’s Temple, the erstwhile label has also released the debut full-length from Austin, Texas’ Woven Bones.
“In and Out and Back Again” is a welcome addition to the Bones’ catalog, which previously consisted of only a couple of seven-inches. A heavy, driving force to be reckoned with, the album is more of a sonic experience than a collection of individual songs. The tracks stand tough on their own, including the dirty, throbbing “Creepy Bone,” the lithe “Couldn’t Help But Stare” and the mesmerizing “If It Feels Alright,” but the album is best enjoyed in one feverish gulp.
Over in under a half-hour, “In and Out and Back Again,” lurches inexorably forward, chewing up and spitting out anything that gets in its way. The album’s cavernous, live feel makes listening to it a bit like standing at the back of a thunderous rock club without ear plugs, praying that your cochleas will survive. Frontman Andrew Burr, a recent Florida-to-Texas transplant, doesn’t so much sing his lyrics as let them trail from his lips in a wounded, grungy syrup that at times rises into a piercing hiccup. The solid rhythm section of Matty on bass and Carolyn on drums keeps it all tied together in an ominous and fuzzy package, providing the perfect backdrop for Burr’s occasional apocalyptic guitar passages.
Take a listen to “If It Feels Alright,” below.
Woven Bones - If It Feels Alright
-- Jason Gelt
Woven Bones
“In and Out and Back Again”
HoZac Records
Four stars (Out of four)
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