Chatterbox – Marionette
Put me in charge of the music world, if you dare! Make me God of all recorded songs, and I could come up with some ideas. I’m not saying that everyone’d like it. But it would certainly make following the charts easier and more interesting.
To start out with, I’d get rid of all the pictures. Sure, those 1970s glam-rock bands dressed like they’re about to start a circus are pretty fun. But the rest of it is just a waste of time for everyone, including the photographer and the audience. Photographers are only supposed to work weddings anyway, aren’t they?
With that out of the way, I’d enforce a rule whereby a band can only record 12 songs ever. Additionally, before any of those can show up on an album, they have to be released as individual singles on vinyl.
What would that solve? You’d get so many wonderful surprises that your overexcited brain would risk exploding. You wouldn’t be able to judge a record by the photo on the cover and everyone would try their hardest to get a great single in before they fade into oblivion.
You’d like to get great garage-rock like Chatterbox’s “Marionette,” a song that doesn’t overthink its dancing steps, a tune that gets to the point and gets out of the way. With so little time wasted on formalities, Chatterbox are able to get to what’s really important, and you’re able to play the record back a few times. The next few times you listen to it, you’ll hear it as an anthem against conformity, and you’ll be able to properly appreciate the song’s energy. That’s the kind of song that would fit into my little dictatorship quite nicely.
Gun-Shy Butterfly – Dark Side
Computers, DAW controllers and modern synths are all wonderful, but very polite inventions. They play so long as you turn them on and program a set of instructions. They never do anything less, and most importantly, never do anything more.
Sure, you can turn the electronic sounds louder. But nothing quite rumbles like an electric guitar, and there’s no other instrument that the player can quite lose control of in quite the same way.
That over-the-top noise has been enough to satisfy the artistic needs of everyone from Hendrix to Gun-Shy Butterfly, and I don’t predict it going away too soon. The fact is that as long as people have anything to shout about, they’re unlikely to get artistic fulfilment from arguing with an arpeggiator.
There’s plenty to be angry about still, and lots of reasons to hold a grudge against the world. Gun-Shy Butterfly uses all of those to the band’s advantage on the debut single “Dark Side.” With lyrics inspired by rampant misogyny and music that owes a debt to distortion-loving alt-rock groups like Veruca Salt, Gun-Shy Butterfly make a case for giving loud guitar music a few more tries.
