Engineer/producer Bobby Harlow has said that White Fang collectively and “in all sincerity” hoped Chunks would ultimately “sound like a combination of Britney Spears and Metallica.” By this standard, the 16-track LP—which boasts such nutty-asadvertised anarchical odes as “Chairman Of The Bored,” “Doin’ The Damn Thing,” “Full Time Freaks,” “Turning Square” and “Pissing In The Driveway”—is a failure. By every other remotely applicable standard, it is an overwhelming triumph.
Chunks is the aural equivalent of Angel Dust-era Faith No More traveling back in time to deliver a cache of early Guided By Voices records to Brian Wilson’s house circa 1966, only to fi nd themselves engaged in a everybody-take-their-shirts-o ff-and-trade instruments jam session. Sure, the record has moments that are a little too willfully obtuse, but the gleeful, id-driven careen ‘n’ bellow lo-fi indie punk found here is sure to be endearing and enlivening for those who find a spoonful of avant-garde helps the partying go down.
—Shawn Macomber
