Brian Tristan (a.k.a. Kid Congo Powers) has mangled the guitar for some of punk’s and post-punk’s most unselfconsciously artistic bands: the Gun Club, the Cramps, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. Following exposure to Howie Pyro’s garage/trash internet radio extravaganza Intoxica on Luxuria Radio, and seeing one of his former employers the Cramps’ latter-day performances, Kid opted to strip down to roots while staying consciously weird.
The results—especially with La Araña Es La Vida—are delightfully o ff-kilter and deliciously raw. Busted-speaker guitar tones, reverb, mic-into-guitar-amp vocals, rhythms ranging from John-Lee-Hooker-jamming-with-Alvin-Stardust (“Psychic Future”) to arpeggiated stroll (“Five Points”) to pounding garage snot (“Coyote Conundrum”)—pick your track, get a new flavor, as unprocessed as grass-fed beef with gravel and razor blades mixed in. All this, plus the Psychedelic Furs’ early sneering masterpiece “We Love You,” on a bonus seven-inch.
—Tim Stegall
