AIDS Wolf - Cities of Glass

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Tied-Up in Paper AIDS Wolf Tour Dates 2 Oct 2008 w/ AN ALBATROSS @ L’Agitée Quebec City, Quebec 4 Oct 2008 w/ NEPTUNE, MADE IN MEXICO, SHEARING PINX, CHROME JACKSON ++ @ Divan Orange (Weird Punk Mtl) Montreal, QC, Quebec 5 Oct 2008 w/ BLACK FEELINGS, DOUBLE DAGGER, PINK NOISE ++ @ Friendship Cove (Weird BBQ Mtl - daytime party) Montreal QC 24 Oct 2008 w/ MONOTONIX, AN ALBATROSS and more @ Knitting Factory (CMJ Music Marathon) New York, New York 25 Oct 2008 TBA TBA 30 Oct 2008 Heirloom Arts Theatre Danbury, Connecticut 31 Oct 2008 w/ PONYTAIL, CHILD ABUSE ++ @ DANBRO STUDIOS WAREHOUSE @ GOLDENROD BREWERY Brooklyn, New York 1 Nov 2008 w/ DMBQ @ WPW Hall Philladelphia, Pennsylvania 2 Nov 2008 w/ YIP YIP @ Velvet Lounge DC, Washington DC 3 Nov 2008 w/ DEERHUNTER, TIMES NEW VIKING @ Otto Bar Baltimore, Maryland 4 Nov 2008 w/USAISAMONSTER @ The Triple Richmond, Virginia 5 Nov 2008 Square One Greensboro, North Carolina 6 Nov 2008 w/ VERA FANG , THY MIGHTY CONTRACT @ The Earl Atlanta, Georgia 7 Nov 2008 JJ’s Bohemia Chattanooga, Tennessee 8 Nov 2008 TBA TBA 9 Nov 2008 w/ CHURCH OF THE SNAKE The Exchange Hot Springs, Arkansas 10 Nov 2008 Bluebird St.Louis, Missouri 11 Nov 2008 TBA Kansas City, Kansas 12 Nov 2008 Conservatory Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 13 Nov 2008 w/ TEENAGE COOL KIDS , ORANGE COKES @ Club Dada Dallas, Texas 14 Nov 2008 Emos Austin, Texas 15 Nov 2008 TBA Lubbock, Texas 16 Nov 2008 TBA Albuquerque, New Mexico 17 Nov 2008 Modified Arts Phoenix, Arizona 18 Nov 2008 Tha Casbah San Diego, California 19 Nov 2008 w/ FOOT VILLAGE @ The Smell LA, California 20 Nov 2008 w/ AH KRAKEN , THE MAYYORS @ UC-DavisFirehouse Sacramento, California 21 Nov 2008 21 Grand Oakland, California 22 Nov 2008 Hemlock Tavern San Francisco, California 23 Nov 2008 w/ Magick Daggers @ East End Portland, Oregon 24 Nov 2008 TBA Vancouver, British Columbia 25 Nov 2008 w/ MIDWIFE @ Vera Project Seattle, Washington 26 Nov 2008 Badlander Missoula, Montana 28 Nov 2008 w/ GAY BEAST @ TBA Minneapolis, Minnesota 29 Nov 2008 TBA Chicago, Illinois 30 Nov 2008 TBA TBA

Okay, I love albums like this. Montreal's AIDS Wolf have been melting eardrums with their spastic, noisy, no wave dance rock for kids with ADD since 2003. I would compare this to bands like Lightning Bolt, Sword Heaven, Arab on Radar, maybe. This is the kind of band who probably leaves no one in the room motionless live, but they also translate pretty well to record, if this thing is any indication. Their new album, Cities of Glass, is basically some of the best of the genre.

The opening to “M.T.I.” (the album's first track) sounds like a swarm of bees with a fuzzed out guitar providing the swarm and and Chloe Lum's spastic vocals approximating the sound of the ones stinging the insides of your ears. “Tied up in Paper” sounds like Beefheart on speed. Lots of speed. Twacked out drumming provides the backbone for spastic guitar riffs and shrieking vocals. “Cities of Glass” continues this tradition with a mechanical drum beat and guitar feedback and trem picked riffs creating a really nice chaos. “Ch-ch-ch-chatter” is the musical equivalent not so much of fingernails on a chalkboard, but of decimating a ball point pen on a chalkboard, point first. “Down, Holy Ground” sounds like what would happen if you played a Stooges record too fast and then started beating the crap out of a drum kit. “Gnarly Tooth” sounds like a tweaking garage band making the best music they ever have in their lives. The guitar noodling is top notch. “General _ _” is the audio equivalent of the chaos of an army tripping over themselves while marching. The repetitive blunt force trauma of “A Sacrificial Drone” actually sounds kind of strange here. When this sounds straightforward, you know you've got a good album playing. Its two minutes feel like an eternity, but in a good way. The chaotic structure of “Relevant Issues” kind of reminds me of Sword Heaven, with its screeching feedback and complex drumming, and that nice emphasis on insane screeching noise. This track's three minutes feel oddly short, despite this being the longest song on the album. The last track, “So Many Plastic Pearls” sounds like a rock 'n' roll song sped up to about 300 bpm and played through a broken speaker.

So basically, this isn't one for the faint of heart. It's also one of the best albums I've heard this year. They've got a few tour dates coming up. That one with Deerhunter and Times New Viking in Baltimore will probably be one of the best shows ever put together, but you probably already knew that. It's out today on Skin Graft Records. Check it out. And, as always, more info can be found at the band's official website.