Fatal Flying Guilloteens : Quantum Fucking
Let it be known that 2007 will go down in history as the year that rock got back to being obnoxious again. Labels like Touch & Go and Amphetamine Reptile were integral in making rock music (particularly punk), a frightening and hideous nuisance in the late ’80s and early ’90s, and since then, few have been able to give the likes of Cows, Jesus Lizard or Scratch Acid a proper run for their money in the sweaty, slithering brute department. Yet witnessing the rise of bands like Clockcleaner and Pissed Jeans leads me to believe that villainy is having something of a renaissance.
This is exactly the right time for Fatal Flying Guilloteens to unleash their spastic, dissonant, and vile punk rock mess Quantum Fucking upon unwitting ears. The Houston band has been churning out a bastardized version of garage rock for nearly a decade now, yet on their first album on Frenchkiss Records, and their third full-length overall, FFG have the right amount of polish to let their oily blemishes glisten amongst the ooze from which they emerged. As the album’s press release eloquently puts it, “it is a record about fucking and taking a lot of drugs.” Well put, but what’s most prevalent on this slithering, lecherous thrill ride is its complete mercilessness and skull-shaking intensity.
Quantum Fucking is a noisy record, and one that will find favor with those who prefer their vocalists unintelligible and their limbs flailing about with complete disregard for personal safety. The Jesus Lizard is an oft-used touchstone for Fatal Flying Guilloteens’ harsh sound, and that isn’t stopping here. “Hello, Boss!!!” begins the album with the same sort of scratchy, rumbling filth that David Yow & Co. made famous 15 years back. “Charts” is a bit faster paced and closer to Brainiac on the spasm scale, while “Reveal the Rats” pulls the band toward dizzying extremes between blood curdling bass and eardrum distressing high end. Then there’s the furious, jerky funk of “Great Apes,” a definite highlight of the album for being as menacing as the 500 lb. Gorillas it brings to mind.
If Quantum Fucking were music for any sort of party, it’d be the kind that would require the cops bring serious reinforcements if they were to attempt to shut it down. This hell-bent band of miscreants are primed for a full night of picking fights, getting ripping drunk and, supposedly, having sex, and not even a SWAT Team could stop them.
Similar Albums:
Jesus Lizard – Liar
Pissed Jeans – Hope For Men
Coachwhips – Peanut Butter and Jelly Live at the Ginger Minge
Jeff Terich is the founder and editor of Treble. He's been writing about music for 20 years and has been published at American Songwriter, Bandcamp Daily, Reverb, Spin, Stereogum, uDiscoverMusic, VinylMePlease and some others that he's forgetting right now. He's still not tired of it.