It's amazing how far punk rock has come over the last thirty-five years. Now, punk bands (most of them anyway) function within a framework of established paradigms using variables in form, subject matter, tone, tempo and timbre to write songs that – while superficially 'original' – closely adhere to well-worm and utilized formulas. Now, there are rules to being in a punk band that just didn't exist thirty-five years ago; now, all you seem to need is a crappy attitude and three or four chords that are easy to string together but, back at the dawn of punk, there were no boundaries and no establishments to mimic so everyone just made it up as they went along. As a byproduct of that, the music was far more personal; Iggy Pop has said that The Stooges were trying to emulate “loud and annoying” but monolithic machinery – like a bumper press at the Ford plant in the band's native Michigan. Johnny Ramone said The Ramones thought they were making “sick bubblegum music” and the results of their songwriting style and stage presence amounted to being a series of “long songs played quickly.” Richard Hell was a destitute street urchin with a penchant for (but neither the ability nor the financial wherewithal to faithfully reproduce) French poetry and the artists of both the Stax and Motown rosters – Tom Verlaine was basically in the same boat.
Needless to say, there was a wide variety of food to sustain the punk muse, but none of those sorts of ideas or inspirations appear in mainstream punk rock now. The genre has become a very different, much more homogeneous game and, because of that, when a band starts making music with the same sort of spirit as those original bands had now, it confuses the hell out of listeners because it breaks a very important mould and, judging by everything from the album art to the music on “In The Valley Of Sickness,” that's exactly what Thomas Function is shooting for on their sophomore album (first for Fat Possum).
To be clear, very, very little on “In The Valley Of Sickness” resembles anything else in punk today, but that doesn't mean there aren't a few more time-honored forms. On their second album, Thomas Function goes back to the beginnings of punk to find inspiration and, like the bands who played that dawn, comes away a totally unique band apart from anything else in punk right now.
With slippery and spiky Brit-rock-inspired guitars and an attitude that could easily be taken for sarcastic or overly ironic, Thomas Function wastes no time and smashes listeners over the head right at the outset of the album with “ADP Blues” – a song that cross-wires good time vibes (portions of the song call “Summertime Blues” to mind) with hard feelings and violent motivation (“The only good cop is a dead cop”) to simultaneously make audiences move and really agitate them. The trend continues through “Picking Scabs,” “Ew Way Ew” (which playfully expresses disgust in all-new ways) and “How Does It Feel?” as the band betrays some pretty surprising country & western chops run over with some totally un-authoritative vintage pop and rock clichés (check out "Magic City " for the pinnacle of this motivation) that hooks so much as they offer points of access for listeners.
When they do get inside, listeners become singer Josh Macero's plaything to be abused as he sees fit, but the interesting thing about that is the way he goes about it; with an ultra- nasal delivery that forces a sort of childlike image to mind, Macero yowls crass come-ons and generally accosts anyone within earshot (While “Not Asking For Much” is the best example, “ADP Blues,” “Two Pigs,” “Picking Scabs” and “Belly Of The Beast” all follow in the same line) in a vocal tone that could best be described as that of an un-medicated and disgruntled Daniel Johnston. The effect of that voice is impossible to qualify – on one hand, it is loud and annoying but also sort of sweet, innocent and childlike on the other; it successfully straddles the line between totally harmless and the most worrisome thing you've ever heard.
That is the perverse hook of Thomas Function and “In The Valley Of Sickness” that will keep listeners entranced – it's impossible what to make of it or what it will do next from track-to-track.
But is it a gimmick or genuine? Future releases from Thomas Function will eventually reveal the motives that drive them but, for now listeners will only be able to stare in mute awe and wonder.
Artist:
www.myspace.com/thomasfunction
Album:
“In The Valley Of Sickness” comes out on October 13, 2009 on Fat Possum Records. Pre-order it on Amazon and enjoy free streaming previews of the album's twelve songs.
