SICK ROOM RECORDS
"NEW PATIENTS"
AUGUST 2002
A very well-constructed compilation from new Chicago label Sick Room. Founded in 2001 by half of Sweep the Leg Johnny, Sick Room has already released some impressive bands, including San Francisco's raucous Bottles and Skulls and Montreal's Rockets Red Glare.
This comp provides a healthy dose of melody and attack, with rambling guitar-driven lo-fi tunes interspersed with driving alt punk-metal assaults. The bands range from spaced-rock tweedlings of Dilute and Rumah Sakit, to the hard edge of Bottles & Skulls and Runner, and blends the two with Ritalin wonders like The Vidablue and Check Engine. The mix is fresh and absent from a definitive genre, like combining Drag City bands circa 1994 with Crypt records circa 1998.
Steve and CD from Sweep's new effort Check Engine surface here with trademark quick tempo tricks and sweet guitar bridges. "So we've got balls can balls, what else we got?" manages to simultaneously deconstruct and rebuild itself three times during two-and-a-half minutes of play.
The Bottles & Skulls snarling metal hit "The Beast is Li'l Me" is by far the most rocking line of blow on the comp and worth the price alone. A re-release from an earlier 7-inch, this anthemic masterpiece could sell a million copies. Sick Room is hoping to sell more than ten of the appropriately titled release "Amped The Fuck Up" containing 14 such Bottles & Skulls songs, all with plenty of konk for your rock pipe. Do yourself a favor and get high.
The Vidablue's "Grave? Shovel! Let's go" is a delightfully schizophrenic lo-fi number, at first slow and jazzy, then peaking with screeches and an urgent, broken-voiced, "We wrote the funk, we smote the funk…" I heard some such madness in there and in other numbers, most notably Runner's delusional "Title Track." Runner's lead vocals are metal machine music incarnate and the pounding drums only enforce the insanity.
Rockets Red Glare have mastered the art of the tremolo and the sizzling snare and approach levels of intricate blastout we may be more familiar with from noise-rock New York bands. The track here, "Halifax" presages their just-released and eponymous album. "Halifax" has sounds of Sonic Youth and maybe even a little bit of something like an indie Tool.
Laid-back tunes like The Ants' "Segreto" and Lozenge's "Credo" combine freejazz influences with modern electronica artistry. "Credo" in particular is a more rewarding type of Skeleton Key song, rollicking on found percussive instruments like pots, pans, and trash cans without accelerating over the top. Segreto sounds like an early Pavement song without Malkmus.
The problem with most comps is that half the songs suck. But a good comp is a great mixed CD burn. Two of my favorite label compilations are This is Drag City and K Records' International Hip Swing and New Patients ranks right up there with the best of them.
Check out:
Rockets Red Glare, Rockets Red Glare
Bottles and Skulls, Amped the Fuck Up
Check Engine, Check Engine
Runner, The Goods
Rumah Sakit, Rumah Sakit
--T. Leonardo
Aug 15, 2002
